


Hurricane

by SightlessWriter17



Category: Biohazard | Resident Evil (Gameverse)
Genre: Author Is Sleep Deprived, Blood and Gore, Canon-Typical Violence, Canonical Character Death, Dysfunctional Family, Emotional Constipation, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Enemies to Friends to Lovers, F/M, Fighting, Game: Resident Evil 2 Remake (2019), Gore, Hurt/Comfort, I'm sure there's more than I'm missing, Implied/Referenced Cheating, Implied/Referenced Child Abuse, Implied/Referenced Domestic Violence, It's not Leon don't worry guys, Leon Sips Respect Women Juice, Leon is good, Leon is trying his best, OC Is Sleep Deprived, OC Needs Therapy, OC doesn't have their name mentioned until the second chapter, OC is a bamf, OC just hates everyone, Oblivious Leon S. Kennedy, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, POV Alternating, Past Abuse, Past Tense, Protectiveness, Relationship Get Physical Before It Gets Emotional, Sexual Content, Sexual Tension, Slow Burn, Survival Horror, Zombie Apocalypse, Zombies, Zombies Want To Eat Yo Ass, but not really, in the future, in the future anyway, mentions of abuse
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-10-05
Updated: 2020-11-15
Packaged: 2021-03-07 23:08:36
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 5
Words: 22,503
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26841928
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SightlessWriter17/pseuds/SightlessWriter17
Summary: As she sat perched on the window sill, staring out with a rather dull gaze, she found herself thankful for one thing at least. The apartments she found herself hunkered down in were considered 'luxury' and as such, the people who ran the place did well to ensure that the tenants were never hindered in going about their daily routine. The building still had running water and most of the lights still worked. It was also one of the few remaining husks of the city that wasn't currently burning. She figured, as she sat there towelling her damp hair, that she could also be thankful that. The water had been cold, but cold showers had never bothered her. Besides, She wasn't going to be picky about the temperature of the water that helped get the dirt, grime and blood off of her skin.- - - - -Leon finds himself swept up in a hurricane when he encounters a strange woman who seems out of place in the Raccoon City Police Station. Does he stand the chance of unravelling the mystery of this woman while also trying to find a way out of the city?
Relationships: Leon S. Kennedy/Original Character(s), Leon S. Kennedy/Original Female Character(s)
Comments: 9
Kudos: 14





	1. An Interesting First Day

**Author's Note:**

> This is my first fanfiction in a while and my first Resident Evil one. Watching Jacksepticeye play the ResE 2 remake inspired me, then I read AoAnimeGeek's amazing fanfiction 'Right Between The Eyes' and found my spark finally. I'm using their fanfiction as well as Jacksepticeye's playthrough a guide for the layout of rooms and events and how they should play out in my fanfiction. I hope you enjoy! 
> 
> OC isn't named until the second chapter just because I felt like it, so please deal with that for the first chapter alone.

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> He was a police officer now and while this might not be how he envisioned his first day going, he had to focus if he wanted any chance of getting out of this alive and getting Marvin the help he needed. He wasn't going to fail another person today. He couldn't fail another person today. He had to find the three medallions, the one chance they had of unlocking a secret passageway that potentially didn't even exist. It was the only strand of hope they had. 
> 
> And Leon was clinging to it. 

As she sat perched on the window sill, staring out with a rather dull gaze, she found herself thankful for one thing at least. The apartments she found herself hunkered down in were considered 'luxury' and as such, the people who ran the place did well to ensure that the tenants were never hindered in going about their daily routine. The building still had running water and most of the lights still worked. It was also one of the few remaining husks of the city that wasn't currently burning. She figured, as she sat there towelling her damp hair, that she could also be thankful that. The water had been cold, but cold showers had never bothered her. Besides, She wasn't going to be picky about the temperature of the water that helped get the dirt, grime and blood off of her skin. 

There had even been one of those little bottles of complimentary shampoo you get in places like this and really, it was the simple joys that kept her going. Like small bottles of shampoo that smelt like cinnamon. 

The burning hellscape of the city below only kept her attention for a moment longer, she had to move. Couldn't stay cooped up in this apartment any longer, it had only been a quick stop for her to catch her breath and get cleaned up before resuming her journey. There was still quite the trek before she got where she needed to be. The police station. A place that had been turned into a form of sanctuary during the outbreak - if the message she had heard intermittently blaring through speakers the past five days was true. A fact she found highly ironic considering her knowledge of the RPD. 

In the threshold that connected the bedroom to the rest of the apartment lay a body of what had once been a woman. From the picture that sat abandoned on the bedside table, it could be assumed that when she was alive she was beautiful, all delicate curves and supple skin, plump lips and sultry blue eyes under long lashes. The kind of blonde beauty that so many men swooned over and so many women wanted to be. Yet, this picture of beauty and grace had been tarnished and destroyed, left to burn like the rest of the city. Skin that had once been full of life was now a pale, sickly grey. Stretched across her emaciated corpse, torn like paper in several parts to reveal the bone and muscle that lay under her flesh. A woman that had once been a beauty had been diminished to nothing more than a monster. Just like everyone else in this city. 

The still-nameless woman that had been watching the city burn from the window stepped over the body as if it wasn't there, not bothered when she got fresh blood on her boots to trek back through the apartment. The place was already trashed enough, it was hardly like a few more bloody footprints would stand out amongst the chaos of upturned furniture and brown splatters of dried blood that covered the floors and walls and... Well just about everything else. 

Along with the body lying in the doorway of the bedroom, there were two other bodies. One in the kitchen, half-eaten and sprawled in a pool of congealed blood, the other slumped over in the corner of the living room facing towards the couch where her bag and jacket lie waiting. Running a hand through tangled strands of auburn, she wasted no time in grabbing her leather jacket and shrugging it on. Pausing to dig through her backpack and check that she had everything in there still before she threw that over her shoulders as well and let it rest in its rightful spot on her back. 

Then she was turning right back around to head back into the bedroom and slip out of the window and onto the fire escape. Unfortunately, shit was never easy when it came to her. The corpse that had been laying in the doorway with its head sufficiently - or so she had thought - smashed in was beginning to awkwardly raise to its feet once again. Wobbling in a sight that would be humorous if it was an actual human, not a walking corpse with a ravenous hunger for human flesh. 

"Well, fuck..." She huffed softly, already reaching for the left side of her hip where her butterfly knife was strapped in. By the time the creature had forced itself back onto two legs, the woman had already crossed the room and was right in front of it. It let out an unpleasant gargle, opening its mouth to gnash yellowed teeth at her, only to fall silent when a blade was quickly and ruthlessly embedded in its skull. Right between the eyes. Hands that had begun to reach for her froze and with a grunt, she yanked the blade from its skull and watched it slump to the ground once more. Just to be fucking certain it wouldn't get up again, she stumped on its head. Once. Twice. Three times until it was nothing but sludge under her boot. 

"Fucking zombies..." She grumbled, closing her knife up once more and pushing it back into its rightful spot on her belt before stepping over the corpse once more and making her way into the bedroom. It was raining still, just as it had been when she was watching the city earlier, just as it had been since this whole shitshow began. It seemed that no matter how much it rained the fires never stopped burning. The constant rain made the metal of the fire escape slick under her boots, and climbing was never ideal in this kind of weather but she'd wasted enough time standing around the apartment and indulging in small luxuries like showering. Like shampoo that smelt like cinnamon. Like believing she could ever get clean of the blood and the grime and the dirt. 

She had a fucking job to do and she intended to do it before she left this cursed city. 

So she took a deep breath, climbed over the railing of the fire escape and without a moment of hesitation she leapt, easily crossing the gap between the hotel she had been in and the building next to it. She rolled to displace the impact force of the drop to the roof of this building - some restaurant, she thought - and hopped up to her feet. Ignoring the uncomfortable throb of her back from where her backpack had been pushed into it. She didn't dawdle on that rooftop for longer than a minute, she'd wasted enough time in the hotel. She moved quickly and briskly through the city, sticking to rooftops of buildings so she was off of the streets. Walking through them was a death sentence in their current state, littered with burning vehicles and the walking corpses that gargled and screeched unpleasantly below. It took over an hour until she finally saw it, looming ominously in the near distance, peeking out at her from around another building. 

The clocktower of the Raccoon City police station.

She was nearly there. 

◉-◉-◉-◉

The stench inside Raccoon City Police Station was nearly unbearable, death and rot hung in the air. Heavy, overwhelming, so strong that Leon worried that it might become something he could never stop smelling. That it would always be stuck there, a reminder of the horrors he had faced on what was supposed to be the first day of a brand new sparkling career. A chance to actually help people, to fulfil his dreams of becoming a cop. His whole damn life, all he had ever wanted to do was help people, it was the reason he'd even wanted to become a cop. But it seemed that since he had arrived, he hadn't been able to help anyone. 

He'd been split from Claire, he couldn't save Elliot, Marvin was dying, he was having to walk around shooting creatures that used to be civilians. The very civilians he was supposed to protect and serve. Sure, he had initially been drawn to this place because of the murders - and everyone at the academy had thought him a fool to want to try and tackle murders as a damn rookie - but he never expected this. That he'd come here to find all the people that should have been his coworkers nothing but walking corpses and Elliot... 

God, Elliot. 

The screams haunted him, the desperate pleas for help, the gargles of the undead on the other side of metal. Then the sickening sound of flesh tearing as Elliot was torn in two, spilling guts and blood everywhere. The smell, the sound. All of it kept repeating and Leon couldn't get the sight of the life fading from Elliot's horror-stricken face out of his head. 

He tried though, he tried to shake it off and focus because if he kept zoning out he was going to get himself killed. He was a police officer now and while this might not be how he envisioned his first day going, he had to focus if he wanted any chance of getting out of this alive and getting Marvin the help he needed. He wasn't going to fail another person today. He _couldn't_ fail another person today. He had to find the three medallions, the one chance they had of unlocking a secret passageway that potentially didn't even exist. It was the only strand of hope they had. 

And Leon was clinging to it. 

Marvin's sage words of advice that he'd given before Leon left rang in his head once again. _"Don’t make my mistake. If you see one of those things - uniform or not - you do not hesitate. You take it out...or you run."_

The words kept repeating like a fucking mantra as he made his way slowly down the dark corridor, blood splattered across the walls and floors, dripping from the ceiling which only added another ominous layer to the atmosphere of this place. From where he was, Leon could already see a body slumped in the corner, the radio attached to the dead officer's chest buzzing with static that would be occasionally broken up by a voice trying to relay a message. 

_"This is 73-Bird------for rescue----heading east----River---- Touchdown at R.P.D.-----minutes."_ The static-riddled voice grew louder as Leon cautiously approached the body, flashlight settling on the currently still corpse but if there was one thing he knew... They tended not to stay down. Keeping his torch focused on the body, Leon knelt and reached a gloved hand forward until it was resting on the front of his head, gently pushing it back in an attempt to see his face. 

Only to gag as he watched how the jaw stretched with the movement, hanging lowered and lower in a vain attempt to stay attached to the rest of the face. It was a miracle it was still attached considering it looked as it the officer's mouth had been sliced open, cutting through clean through his ear and deep into the muscle. Forcing the jaw to hang open, threatening to tear and disconnect at any given moment. "What the fuck?" Leon finally managed, unable to tear his eyes away from the gruesome sight. The threat of bile raised in his throat as the jaw stretched open even further but it was like a car crash, he just couldn't tear his gaze away. 

Not until he heard the sound of a can being kicked, the echo of metal skipping across the ground finally snapping him out of his daze and forcing him to turn away from the body. Raising to his feet once more, wiping his hand on his pants subconsciously and doing his best to swallow down the bile that had nearly left him. It had been a damn miracle it hadn't. He knew that being an officer you had to have an iron stomach, had to be able to face some of the most gruesome crimes but none of his training had ever prepared for him for this. 

Before he could continue down the hallway, he noticed the dangling legs hanging there. Legs that belonged to the body of an officer, which Leon got a very good look at as he pointed his flashlight up and nearly immediately wished he hadn't. The body was dangling from a pipe which their head had been impaled on by... Well, Leon didn't know what and if he was honest he doubted he wanted to find out. He didn't stare long, rather he forced himself to push onward down the hall with the determination to investigate that noise. The hanging body of the officer barely missed him when it came down without warning, hitting the ground with a meaty slap, the head had split in two from where the pole had finally sliced through it. 

Leon sent the body of the fallen officer a final look - deciding with grim contempt that he wouldn't get back up - before he continued down the hallway, pausing to board up a window with some planks he had found when he spotted a zombie trying to break through it while snarling and growling. Picking up ammo where he found it. Pausing to grab a map piece and read a note detailing what had happened. He didn't read them until he had finished checking the room, finding the way onward (a damn window he was going to have to climb through, the only other door was chained shut) before he slumped to sit on top of a box and unfolded the letter.

_"There was another clash on the west side of the station around 1 pm. Twelve died, and there is only a handful of survivors left. Everything is falling in disarray in here."_

He should have come where he was meant to, he should have been here five days ago maybe he could have... He could have helped, he could have. He could have done _something!_ What could he have done? He didn't know but still, anything to stop the feelings of hopelessness that kept bubbling up inside of him. A swirling ocean just waiting to drag him under a suffocate him. 

A strange sound broke his wallowing, forcing his gaze away from the note. It was a wonder he'd even picked them up with how soft they sounded, but it was undeniable what he was hearing. Footsteps. Even and purposeful. Not shambling, not shuffling. Actual footsteps. Something about that didn't seem quite right and it caught Leon's interest. Pocketing the note, he forced himself to climb up through a broken window, landing softly on the ground below in another hallway where the first thing to catch his eye was a zombie repeatedly bumping into a vending machine. He paused, steadied his breath and lifted Matilda. 

_Do not hesitate._

He fired. The bullet hit the zombie's head and forced it to jerk to the side where it then steadied itself and turned sluggishly to face him. Letting a hungry gargle, it began its slow movement towards him, shambling awkwardly closer. Leon kept his gun steadied and shot again, the bullet doing little more than forcing it to stumble backwards. Another bullet bringing on much of the same result, a stumble back before it resumed shuffling towards him. The fourth bullet finally made it fall to the ground, where he was then able to step forward, unsheath the knife Marvin had given him and drive it right through its head. 

Letting out a shaky breath, he collected himself and resumed walking. Making sure to stop and drive a bullet into the head of the zombie that was sprawled on the floor in front of the West Office, aware that they had the habit of not staying dead. With that taken care of, he pushed open the West Office to look around. Checking the desks of colleagues already dead, eaten or otherwise, finding what would have been his desk and note left for him before he caught sight of the banner hanging up above the room. He stepped back, narrowed his eyes and pointed his flashlight up so he could read it better.

**_W E L C O M E L E O N !_ **

Fate was cruel fucking mistress indeed. 

He managed to unlock his desk, heart aching at the sight of a high capacity mag meant for Matilda. A gift. They had left a fucking gift for him. 

Fucking Christ he couldn't... he had to get out of that room before he got sucked into his thoughts again. He wasn't quite desensitized to all of this yet. Attaching the flip to Matilda, Leon turned to leave. Only stopping to take out the zombie that had gotten up while he'd been looking around before he stepped back out into the hallway. The Safety Deposit Room caught his eye next.

It was one of the better-lit rooms, filled with lockers that were unlockable from a keypad. There's not much in there for him, the keypad is missing two keys which means he's unable to get the extra pouch stashed away in one of the lockers. A shame but he'd have to come back once he found it, an increase in inventory would be greatly appreciated right about now and he was already running out of room. It's while he's thinking about this, that the door behind him opens and he whips around instantly. Matilda raised and ready to shoot at whatever Zombie just stumbled into here, only it's not a zombie. 

Stood in the doorway, hand still on the door handle, is a woman. Very alive, though soaked from the rain outside. Her hair sticks to her forehead and cheeks, long and hanging down best her chest. The outfit she's wearing, jeans, a shirt and leather jacket are all varying degrees of soaked through. Her eyes, the same color as whiskey, were fixed on him in an intense stare and her expression? Void. She didn't show much of any emotion, weird considering she was stood with a gun pointed at her head.

"Are you going to shoot me or just point that thing at me?" She finally spoke up, voice cool and betraying no trace of fear or anger. Just... indifference. It stuck with him, nagging at his mind as he slowly lowered the gun that had been pointed at her. "Good, I didn't feel like getting shot today," She said dryly, stepping into the room fully now and shrugging off her backpack to set it down on a bench, unzipping it and beginning to rummage through. Seemingly unbothered by Leon's presence or the way that he stared at her, in complete shock at this woman who walked in and acted so blase about the whole situation. As if the dead weren't walking and trying to eat people. 

"You-" Leon finally began, pausing when the singular word had her head snapping up to face him and he found himself flushing under the weight of her gaze. Not because she was attractive (though admittedly, she was) but because she looked at him in such a way that made him feel like everything he said was stupid. "You're not a zombie." Was what Leon finally managed to blurt out. 

Her expression barely twisted, though she looked more unimpressed than she had before. "Astute observations there, officer. Glad to see that this place is hiring the brightest new recruits," She responded, turning her head back down into her bag. silently pulling out a medkit and that was when Leon finally realised that the very alive woman was favouring her right hand. She sat down on the bench, opened up the medkit and went about disinfecting and wrapping her hand as if he wasn't even there. 

This day just kept getting weirder and weirder. 

"What's your name?" Leon finally asked, brow's furrowing together and lips pursing to form a concerned expression as he watched her patch up her hand. He'd caught a quick glimpse of the wound, it wasn't a bite but it had been a pretty nasty cut. The woman dragged her gaze up from her now bandaged hand to stare at Leon for a moment as if she was reading him like a book. He couldn't help but feel like she already knew everything about him. 

She finally tore her gaze away and he felt like he could breathe again, raising to her feet once more and beginning to pack up her stuff. Zipping up the bag and slinging it back over her shoulders. Leon realised then that she wasn't going to answer his question. "Try not to get yourself killed, there's a lot of those things stumbling around," She called back to him before she pushed open the door and stepped back out into the hallway, already forgetting about the awkward cop and moving onto her next destination. 

But of course, he can't leave it alone. He runs out of the room after her. "Hey, wait!" His voice is hushed but still loud, clearly trying not to attract the attention of any potential undead, and she can already hear the sound of his boots slapping against the ground as he runs to catch up with her. Unwilling to let the strange woman walk right back out of his life with all the ease she had walked into it. 

Internally, she sighed and accepted that for the time being she was stuck with this tag-along she'd have to humour and then shake loose later on. 

Because shit could never be easy...


	2. Name of The Storm

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> She stared at it for a moment longer, just to be fucking sure it wasn't getting back up, then sharp whiskey eyes moved up to settle harshly on Leon's face. The officer slowly lowered his gun as her gaze pierced through him. "The next time you freeze up like that, I won't save you," Her tone was cold and detached as she watched him, "I'll leave you to be fucking eaten, so get your shit together, Kennedy." 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Two chapters in one day? Way yes, of course! I already had two chapters written but after this I'm going to go back to writing. Once again, a huge thank you to AOAnimeGeek for inspiring me. You'll notice an interaction in this chapter similar to one that Icarus and Leon share in her chapter because... Well, I thought it very fitting for my OC to act that way towards him, also I'm a sucker in general for those kinds of scenes in zombie stories. 
> 
> I hope you enjoy!

The darkroom was a decently sized room, not large but not overly cramped. It had a few lockers and a storage crate in it, the other half of the room was cut off and was where the actual film development took place. It was clear of any undead and despite only having one entrance and exit it was pretty easy to board up the door and wait silently until the dead forgot you were there. She had deemed it a safe room. Leon had deemed it a chance to finally try and get her to open up, which worked somewhat. Well, it worked in the sense he finally got her to tell him her name. 

"Aria," She had grumbled, not looking up from her bag which she had been digging through to find her herbs. Taking this chance to finally sit and grind them up - which she had been meaning to do but hadn't exactly found the time to do so. "My name is Aria." No last name was given but it was nice to finally have something to call her. 

"Pretty name," Leon offered in response, watching as she pulled a herb grinder out of her bag and set about grinding up the green and red herbs they had collected so far. 

It was a pretty name, with many meanings behind it. In Italian it meant 'Melody' which didn't entirely seem to fit the blunt and emotionless woman, really Leon couldn't see her being caught dead singing and the idea of her trying it when her voice rarely ever came across as anything other than irritated or devoid of emotion... Well, he imagined she'd croak rather than sing. In Hebrew, it meant 'Lioness'. That seemed to fit her more. A strong feline, an apex predator. He'd watched how she moved during the walk here, she certainly moved with all the grace of a cat and she killed without flinching, driving her knife into the skull of any zombie that got too close. Finishing them off by stomping on their skull. 

Yeah, Lioness seemed to fit. Beautiful but deadly. 

Aria only hummed at the comment of her name being pretty, much more focused on grinding up their herbs and depositing the powder into little plastic baggies. Once that was done, she dropped her powders into her medkit and tossed Leon his. "Thanks," He muttered, looking over them for a minute before he slipped the baggies into one of his pouches. "So, what exactly are you doing here?" Leon asked, watching as the redhead rose from her position sat cross-legged and scowled at him, raising an eyebrow at his question. 

"What? Don't think I cut it as a cop?" She asked dryly, gathering up her bag and setting it on top of the storage crate so it wasn't just laid on the floor. Leon didn't believe she was any kind of cop and it made Aria exhale through her nose in a soft, amused snort. "Yeah, I'm no cop." He didn't seem pleased with that response, so Aria supposed she'd have to give him some sort of real answer. "I'm looking for an old friend is all," She finally settled on saying, voice shifting to be just a touch softer. 

It had the desired effect of causing Leon to lose some of the tension in his shoulders, blue eyes gentle as they watched her. Aria hated it but she kept the mask up and swiftly changed the topic. "What are you doing creeping around this place?" She asked instead, leaning her hip against the wall and crossing her arms over her chest. Taking a moment to actually look at the rookie cop - it was clear he was a rookie, she hadn't seen him when she was here before. Which likely meant that his first day had been during the outbreak, poor bastard. 

She supposed he was handsome, defined jaw, dark blonde hair (that was closer to brunette) and blue eyes. Around five foot ten, so just two inches taller than her. She imagined he was built under that uniform of his, would have to be to survive in this fucking world. Still, he wasn't the first pretty boy she had met and he was unlikely to the last and just like all the others. No charm, no persuading, no sweet words uttered just to get into her pants would work. Aria had one thing on her mind and that was finishing her fucking job and then getting the hell out of dodge. She wasn't here to get her heart torn in two again. 

But alas, she decided to entertain the rookie cop. Ask about him, answer his questions as vaguely as possible or just straight-up lie. Anything to keep him just satisfied enough so he didn't become too suspicious. 

Then when the time was right, she could slip away. 

Aria was brought out of her thoughts as she watched Leon reach into a pocket and pull out a small notebook, flipping it open and moving forward so he could hold it out for her to see what was scribbled. "I'm searching for a way out of here. There's a secret passageway but I need to find the three medallions stored in these statues to get it to open," He explained, watching Aria's face closely as her eyes lazily traced over the picture in front of her. "You should come with me, I can help you find your friend." He offered, unwilling to let one of the only living people he had met just vanish again. 

Whiskey eyes lifted from the page to stare at him, a hint of confusion in them. "You want me to help you hunt down your medallions and in turn, you'll help me find my old friend?" She repeated slowly, trying to understand if she was reading this correctly. Leon nodded his head slowly, lips set, expression determined. 

She could say no, she could make up a damn excuse, she really didn't want to have to follow this damn cop around like a lost puppy dog... but they were both going to be searching this place and at the very least he might serve a purpose. So Aria sighed and nodded her head. "Alright, sounds good to me, Officer," Aria drawled lazily, a little taken back by the actual smile that tugged at Leon's lips at her agreement to tag along. She didn't linger on it, reaching instead to grab her bag and toss it over one shoulder. She wasn't planning on staying with him for longer than she had to. 

<◉><◉><◉><◉>

_When Aria was a little girl, very young, she used to believe in magic. She believed in stories about princesses and knights, about dragons and old wizards. She believed in destiny. Then she grew up, she was ruthlessly - and repeatedly - reminded of her place in this world and she stopped believing in magic. She stopped believing in princesses and dragons, in wizards and knights. She stopped believing in fates controlled by a higher power._

_She never stopped believing in monsters though._

_She knew monsters very well. She lived with one, a beast made of smoke and ash, who's hot breath would beat down on the back of her neck. Crimson eyes that watched her every move, always quick to point out her failures._

_**"You must be better!"** It would roar. **"I expect better!"**_

_It would push her in training. Harder and harder until her body risked breaking and when she crumpled, it would be there to remind her of her many failures. To sink claws in and draw blood until she was better. Until she no longer flinched, no longer cried, until she became a blank canvas it could paint it's twisted plans upon. Useful to act as only one thing._

_Executioner._

_The others had grown up, moved on from the abuse of their monster. They'd slipped free from its chains and embraced new lives with loved ones and pets, with jobs where they were more than that. Yet here she remained, locked up tight, Mommy's only fuck-up. The one who fought every step of the way, never afraid to piss off the monster that lurked over her shoulder. Never hesitating to hiss and spit until it lashed out, drew blood and decorated her body in blooming flowers of black and purple. She had danced with that monster, a volatile and violent dance, gone against every word, every order, every command._

_Yet she remained the only one still just what she had been branded._ **_Executioner._ **

<◉><◉><◉><◉>

Aria sat chewing on a leaf, allowing Leon to organise his equipment while she focused on the weird tingling in her hand that happened with every lazy chew of the green herb. He offered her one of his medicinal sprays but she had refused, settling to instead sit and chew on a green herb since she had collected so many. No point in wasting the good shit. Leon glanced up at her from the storage crate, gaze curious, clearly he had something on his mind. She almost hoped he wouldn't speak up and say whatever it was but that was a hopeless dream, wasn't it? "So, what brought you to Raccoon city of all places?" 

"Moved here a few weeks ago to get in contact with my friend, hadn't seen him in a while," Aria responded easily enough, "then people started eating each other and I figured I better find him and get the hell outta dodge, ya know?" she finished her leaf and crossed her arms once more, eyes flicking from Leon to lazily take in the room again. Nothing had changed but it was a habit, always keep track of everything, take note of everything. You could never be too alert. 

It had kept her alive this long, hadn't it? "What brings _you_ to the city?" Aria asked, lazily inspecting her bandage once more, frowning as she felt the cut on her palm throb. 

"Applied for a position with the R.P.D. today is my first day," Leon responded. 

Now Aria was still capable of recognising when a situation deserved some symphony, as completely fucked as she was mentally. So she knew that line deserved a sympathetic wince, eyes raising from her palm to look at him. "Well shit, that's rough." And it was. Nothing was quite as rough as starting your first day as an officer and finding the city and station filled with the zombified remains of your would-be coworkers, all now desperate for a bite out of your ass. And not in a kinky way. 

Leon nodded, expression grim, and finished up organising his stuff. "I'm done, ready to head out?" He asked, swiftly moving the topic away from that depressing shit before the entire mood plummeted to the point even she would begin to feel sorry for him - which would be quite the fucking accomplishment. 

"Sure, lead the way, officer," Aria drawled with a lazy gesture towards the door with her good hand. Leon went first without complaint, pushing open the door and stepping out with Aria not far behind, the redhead checking that her blades were where they should be. Butterfly knife on her left hip, throwing knives in their respective pouches (both of the left and right side, three in each). All easily accessible. Her gun was still stored in her bag, she'd rather not default to it. It was loud, risked bringing more attention to them, she'd leave the gun-work to Leon. For now. 

It also meant she could save up her ammo. 

The plan, if it could be called that, was to just continue exploring. There are three statues spread out in the police station, each holding a medallion, and they needed to get all three. "I haven't gotten the chance to check the second floor yet, so we should head up there and look around," Leon states, glancing towards his new partner to see if she had any objections. Aria merely gestured for him to lead the way again and kept her lips sealed on the fact she had come from up there. She hadn't taken out all the zombies though, preferring not to engage the damn things unless she had to. 

There were two idling in the hallway, Aria moved quickly. Every footfall seeming precise, practically dancing around the outstretched hands of the nearest zombie while unsheathing her blade for the last on. Ducking under slashed and greying arms to drive sharp metal into a soft skull while Leon lifted Matilda and aimed, shooting at the head of the nearest one before it could trail after Aria. It jerked forward and growled, sluggishly turning around to begin its slow steps towards him. Leon readied himself to take another shut, eyes trained of the decaying face of what had once been a woman. 

Her hat sat askew, her eyes were pale and lifeless. He was sure what had one been lovely black curls now hung lip by her hanging jaw, open to reveal yellowed teeth that gnashed at him with the hungry need to sink into his flesh, to tear him apart. Uncaring that he was a coworker. 

Fuck, she would have been his _coworker._

Leon couldn't help but wonder what she was like before she was turned. Was she happy, bubbly, chatty? Or more stern, the type of officer with steely eyes that focused on the job. Did she have a family? A husband? Children? Would they have been friends? She's creeping closer and closer to him, arms outstretched and hands grabbing, fingers clawed with the want to dig into him and rend flesh from bone. Yet he can't shake the thought that this had once been a person. A person with dreams and aspirations. A person with fears. Reduced now to nothing! Gargling and groaning grew louder as she shambled closer but Leon was stood there frozen, wondering if there were any remains of who she used to be left in that husk of a body. Maybe- 

The body froze suddenly with a large gargled scream, flailing before dropping like a rock. A blade sticking out of the back of its head. Aria swooped down to retrieve her blade and once straightened, stomped on its skull. Caving it in and leaving grey matter spilling out onto the floor. She stared at it for a moment longer, just to be fucking sure it wasn't getting back up, then sharp whiskey eyes moved up to settle harshly on Leon's face. The officer slowly lowered his gun as her gaze pierced through him. "The next time you freeze up like that, I won't save you," Her tone was cold and detached as she watched him, "I'll leave you to be fucking eaten, so get your shit together, Kennedy." 

Leon swallowed the thick lump in his throat, trying not to think about how close the zombie had been before he nodded his head. "Right, sorry it won't happen again, ma'am," He murmured instinctually. Aria wrinkled her nose in disgust as she put her butterfly knife back in its rightful spot on her hip. 

"Don't talk to me like that," She grunted, already turning to check that her own zombie was really fucking dead as she'd been pulled away from properly finishing it when she noticed Leon about to get torn apart. 

"Like what?" 

"Like I'm your superior," She hissed, turning to look at him over her shoulder, "so drop the ma'am shit, it's fucking weird!"

"Right, sorry ma-" He nearly slipped up again but caught himself when Aria raised an eyebrow and pursed her lips into a thin line. "Uh, sorry-" 

"Stop fucking apologising and take the lead, Kennedy, before I just ditch your ass here." Well, he didn't want that. Leon composed himself quickly, keeping his gun raised as he continued down the hall, Aria's soft footsteps the only reminder that she was right behind him. They entered the shower room first, Aria crinkling her nose up at the smell of rot that hung heavily in the space of this room. Then again the smell of rot hung heavily in this whole building. 

While Aria strayed further in to beginning looking through the lockers, Leon caught sight of something sitting abandoned next to a towel. Pointing his meagre flashlight at it revealed it to be a small portable safe, the instructions for which were conveniently taped to the wall nearby. He stood there reading it, holding the safe loosely in his hands.

Meanwhile, Aria stood by the lockers, noise wrinkled at the foul smell. Why the fuck did this room so much more permeable to the scent of dead bodies than the rest of the building? Each locker opened with a soft creak, the sound quiet enough not to be a worry but also just creaky enough to grate at Aria's nerves. She found some shotgun ammo in one of them and gave a low whistle, picking it up and turning towards Leon who was still fiddling with the portable safe which kept beeping tauntingly at him. "Hey," Aria called simply to catch his attention, prompting Leon to look up from the small chiming box, "found some shotgun ammo." 

"There's a shotgun in the Safety Deposit Room, can't get it yet but those'll come in handy when I can," Leon answered and Aria shot him a lazy thumbs up and took that as a suggestion to throw the ammo in her backpack. Leon turned back to the safe and Aria went back to searching lockers, skipping over the one that had a lock on it - no point in trying when it had so many different possible combinations - to go straight to the next one. 

"Sonofabitch!" Leon whipped around, dropping the portable safe and pointing his gun in Aria's direction, watching as the redhead shoved away a corpse that had just fallen out of the locker and onto her. Eyes widened as she stared at the body which now lie unmoving on the floor. When it didn't make any attempt to move or gargle at them, Leon lowered his gun and Aria grunted in frustration. "Fucking _bastard_ ," She hissed, taking a moment to steady her racing heart as she glowered at the corpse as if it had personally insulted her. 

At least she found the reason why this room smelt like Satan's asscrack. 

Leon's shoulders relaxed and he sent a concerned look towards the auburn-haired woman. "You alright?" He asked. 

Aria's face smoothed out once more to the usual emotionless mask she wore - the fact she could so easily do that was beyond creepy to Leon and sent a shiver down his spine - before she nodded. "Yeah, I'm fine," She answered dryly, crossing her arms and staring at the corpse, "nothing a session of heavy drinking won't fix anyway." Before Leon could express his concern at that statement, Aria spoke up again, settling her amber eyes on him and sending another shiver running down his spine, "you done yet?" 

"Uh, nearly..." He answered awkwardly, clearing his throat and scooping down to grab the portable safe he had dropped. It only took another two tries before he got it and the safe opened with a little jingle, allowing Leon to tip the contents into his palm. A small white rectangle with a faded number two printed on it. Aria stared at the weird object with her lips curled into a small frown. 

"What the fuck is that?" She asked, eyebrows furrowing together the longer she stared at it. 

"It's one of the keys for the keyboard in the Safety Deposit Room, I can finally open more of the lockers now," Leon explained excitedly, looking towards Aria who seemed beyond unimpressed at the comment. 

"Leon," She said slowly, as if she was addressing a toddler and not a grown man fresh out of police academy, "you can still press down a missing key on a keyboard, you just press the rubber part." Leon paused at the blunt statement and then looked down at the plastic key in his hand. 

"Shit." 

Aria sighed and shook her head. "Let's just check the third floor and then head back to the Safety Deposit Room," She suggested and Leon nodded his head, quickly pocketing the key before he followed her out of the Men's Shower Room and back into the dark hallway they had been in before. The pair first made their way up to the third floor to look around a bit, not running into many of the undead up there thankfully. Those they did run into were easily and swiftly disposed of. They managed to find a key with a spade design on it which Leon quickly tucked away in a hip pouch before they made their way back down to the first floor where the Safety Deposit Room was located. Now that Leon knew he didn't need the keys he easily unlocked all of the lockers with something in them, the pair helped themselves to the gunpowder and ammo that were in some of the lockers. Leon grabbed a new hip pouch, adding it to his belt. Beyond thankful for the new inventory space that meant he go to carry some of the shotgun ammo too instead of just letting Aria grab it all. Last was a random roll of a film which Aria looked over slowly. 

"Think it'll be of any use?" Leon asked, coming up to stand behind her and look over the item curiously too. Aria hummed and shrugged her shoulders, passing it to him. 

"Might as well see what's on it, right?" She suggested and Leon nodded his agreement, pocketing the film. The two walked back to the main hall, cutting through the West Office as a shortcut now that they had the spade key. Stepping over the glass-eyed bodies that lay sprawled across the floor, nothing but former shells of the people they once used to be. Aria barely spared them a glance. Leon tried hard not to linger on the thought that they were supposed to be his colleagues. They reach the door at the end, handle marked with a spade, and Leon was quick to unlock it before pushing it open to flood their vision with the golden light that filled the main hall. 

It was a well-deserved break from dark hallways, that's a fact.

Marvin was still sat where Leon left him, looking worse for wear. Aria kept her lips sealed and tried hard not to let the pale, sickly color of his once rich, brown skin bother her. Taking the opportunity as a chance to remind herself that this right here was why she didn't let people in, why she kept her walls up, kept everyone at a damn arm's length, acted like such a bitch. No matter what, they always left you. Marvin was just another example of someone she had liked who was once again leaving her, at least this time she hadn't let him in deep. She hadn't let him too close.

What he knew of her was nothing more than a mask. 

"Aria," The older man wheezed in greeting, surprised to see the redhead stood besides Leon. "I never expected to see you again... assumed the worse," Marvin pushed himself to sit up a little more, one hand clutching his side which Aria could see - even from her current distance - was sporting a pretty nasty wound. She didn't have to inspect it to know that it was a bite. Marvin's complexion gave that away. 

"You two know each other?" Leon asked, looking from Aria to Marvin as he walked closer to the Lieutenant, who gave a strained nod. 

"I was doing an internship at the police station before all hell broke loose," Aria responded simply, deciding to answer any questions while she was ahead, no point in hiding that when Marvin was still alive to tell Leon anyway, "figured it might help me find my friend," She added with a shrug, walking over to the two on silent feet. 

Marvin nodded, as if to confirm her story, then turned back to the laptop that sat open next to him. "You two should see this," He grunted, voice thick with pain. Aria didn't watch the screen immediately, amber eyes settled on Marvin and the way his face twisted with pain. A sight that had the corner of her lips tugging down. 

"Yes, I knew she'd make it!" The bright tone from Leon dragged Aria's eyes away from Marvin to squint at the laptop instead, spotting a woman standing outside of a gate in one of the courtyards. Aria hummed curiously, leaning closer to get a better look at her through the static of the camera. 

"You know her?" Aria asked slowly, glancing towards Leon. 

"Her name's Claire. I came into town with her, we got separated when my car exploded." 

Well, it seemed Aria wasn't the only one with shit luck. "You can get to that courtyard through the second floor," Marvin began, every breath seeming to rattle in his chest, "east side." Aria's lips tugged deeper into a frown and she glanced from Marvin to Leon. 

"We're on it. Thanks, Lieutenant." Leon sent the older man a gentle look and Marvin only gave a pained nod, breath hissing out between clenched teeth. He wasn't doing well and was getting worse with every passing minute. Sooner or later he was going to turn and Leon still seemed to have such hope that he would be okay. 

"You go on ahead," Aria said, turning to face Leon, "I'm going to stay here with Marvin. Someone should stay with him." Leon looked like he wanted to argue, but Aria just shot him a cold look and he closed his mouth with the soft clack of teeth before nodding. 

"I'll be back soon," He promised before making his way up the stairs, keeping his eyes on Aria for a moment longer before finally tearing them away as he jogged up the stairs.

Aria watched him go, waiting until he was completely gone before blank eyes moved back down to Marvin. The mask she wore slipped somewhat then, just enough for her eyes to soften and brow to crease with worry. 

"You're... Not really staying to keep me company, are you?" Marvin asked in a strained voice. Aria pursed her lips and shook her head, stepping closer to perch her ass on the edge of the seat while lifting a hand to press to his forehead. Frown deepening at the heat that she felt there. Marvin wheezed and lifted a hand to swat hers away weakly. "Now, don't go fussing over me. It doesn't suit you." Marvin coughed then, shaking his head and watching as the usually blank face of the redhead dipped deeper into concern. "Does Leon know... the real reason you're here?" 

"Marvin, you don't even know the real reason I'm here," Aria responded blankly, setting her bag down for a moment to reach in and grab a cloth, pouring some water onto it. It was lukewarm but it would have to do. She pressed the makeshift cold pack to the older man's brow, dabbing away sweat and watching as his body relaxed. The water bringing him some comfort at least. "You're not gonna last much longer..." Aria pointed out, voice dipping into a much softer tone. 

"I know..." Marvin responded, letting his eyes slide shut. 

Aria hesitated for a moment before she sighed. "I have to go continue my investigation, Marvin," She admitted softly and for just a moment, she let her walls down. Aria lowered the cloth from his head and leant forward to press her forehead to his, slipping her hand into his bloodied one and holding tight. "If I run into your wife... or your daughter... I'll tell them that you loved them," Aria promised softly, catching the way his lips twitched up at that. 

"Thank you, Aria. You're a good woman, don't... forget that," Marvin uttered and Aria leant back and set the cloth on his head once more before she rose to her feet and grabbed her bag. Nodding to him one last time before she turned to leave, trying to ignore the blood on her hand, that was hard to do when it felt like it was scorching her skin.

_"You're a good woman."_

She wished she could believe that. 


	3. Personal Angel of Death

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The gun pointed at her trembled ever so slightly and his face was twisted with anger. "Turn around!" He barked the order and Aria did so lazily, planting her ass on his desk once she was facing him, arms crossed over her chest, cold eyes settled on him. Staring through the old man, so very aware of the sins he carried on his shoulders. She knew monsters well enough to recognise one when she saw them and this man was one. A vile, hissing monster that cradled life in its claws just for the joy of squeezing it out. "I knew there was something wrong with you the second you stepped foot in my office,"
> 
> "Congratulations on not going senile yet then, old man,"

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for any mistakes! I have to edit these by myself so I might miss some whenever I'm combing and reading through the chapter after (and grammarly's crap at picking up actual mistakes). Hopefully, I haven't made any too bad and you guys get to enjoy this chapter.

**< ◉>Fourteen<◉>Years<◉>Old<◉>**

_In this bathroom, in a bathtub that seemed to swallow her small and frail body, were some of the few times Aria ever found peace. So after every session with Father, when she was left bruised and battered, she would slink away here to hide and pick up the pieces of herself. In the comfort of warm water and bubbles, she could easily place tape over the cracks in her mask and piece it back together. That's how it always had been. How it always would be._

_Some small childish part of her was convinced he would never die and she'd be stuck in this violent dance all of her life._

_There was a knock at the door. Too soft to be Father. Not soft enough to be Mother. There was only one person in the family it could be._

_"Come in, Aylin," Aria called out, voice dull and emotionless. She almost felt proud of herself for managing that, concealing the pain her body was in. Father would be proud at least. If he was even capable of feeling that emotion, which she had begun doubting long ago. The door opened slowly, just enough for a small body to slip through and shut it again with a click before Aria found herself under the scrutiny of eyes such dark blue she could drown in them. How she wished she had also been lucky enough to be gifted with Mother's eyes. "What do you want, Aylin?" Aria asked lazily, slipping further under the bubbles. As if that would hide that bruises that her older sister knew were there._

_Despite being older than Aria, Aylin was shorter by a good few inches. Her hair was longer though, longer and thicker. She had the left side of her hair shaved and all the long strands of her auburn hair were tied into a big braid that lay over her right shoulder. She was pretty too but then again, Aria supposed they all were. Pretty. They had to be, you had to look a certain way to avoid the scorn of the public when you didn't fit in. Aria had heard it so many times, uttered about her when their family went to galas. 'She's odd but at least she's pretty.'_

_"I heard that you had another bad training session," Aylin spoke softly, so softly you might miss it if you weren't listening. "Cayden said you got mouthy with Father again." Of course he had, but did Aylin even need to be told? Aria was the family fuck-up, that was just an accepted fact of her existence. There wasn't a day that went by that she didn't come out of it bruised and limping, sometimes with broken bones, left to go and lick her wounds herself. Because God forbid any of them ever went to a hospital after a training session with Father. God forbid his 'training' was found out. Aria's shoulder throbbed at the thought and the corners of her lips tugged down into a frown as she stared at the bubbles. "-Are you even listening?" Like that, Aylin's voice was registering once more. She dragged dead, whiskey-coloured eyes over to stare at her older sister who had crossed her arms and scrunched up her nose in a display of frustration. "Ari, you need to stop challenging him! One of these days you're going to push and he's going to snap and kill you, do you think any of us want to see you dead?" Aylin asked._

_Aria supposed she didn't want a real answer to that._

_"Not if I kill him first." Was what Aria lazily drawled back in response before turning to stare at the black and white tiles of the bathroom walls once again, ignoring when Aylin began ranting - lecturing really because that was what Aria wanted, another lecture - and when the sound became too annoying she chose to slip under the water instead. Down there everything was muffled, Aria could lay with her eyes shut and feel nothing but the warm water and the throbbing of her aching body. Eventually, Aylin finally took the hint. Aria heard the muffled sound of the bathroom door opening and closing with a slam, then she sat up once again, filling her lungs with air._

_And cursing herself for pushing away everybody that cared._

**< ◉><◉><◉><◉>**

Meeting Leon earlier proved to be useful for one thing, there were way fewer zombies this time around. Some stragglers that must have wandered out of unchecked rooms or through broken windows but they were slow and Aria found it painfully easy to be rid of them. Blade to the head and they were down, crush the skull once they were down, never be too careful. These fuckers had the habit of getting back up even when you think you've thoroughly killed them. Keeping her blade in hand, Aria crept through the dark halls of the Police Station, mindful to keep her footfalls light and her ears sharp and strained to avoid having a corpse sneak up on her. She'd memorised the map, she knew where she was going and how to get there, she knew all the different hurdles she would have to jump through. 

And she had never been more proud of her paranoia forcing her to put in all the extra work. 

She reached the artroom corridor, blocked off by a shutter that needed a crank to open. Silently, Aria set her bag down and opened it, reaching inside until her fingers wrapped around smooth metal and she pulled out the square crank, feeling the weight in her hands and letting lips curl up. Oh, she was patting past her on the back for remembering to grab it the last time she was here. Might even come in handy later for getting out of this shithole after she finished taking care of business. That thought kept her feeling pleasant as she slotted it into to place and began to turn the crank, the shutters rolling up slowly with a lot of clattering and metallic thudding. Not quiet or unassuming at all. She really hoped there wasn't just a horde waiting for her beyond this shutter because honestly? That was just about her luck.

With the shutter up, Aria dropped the crank back in her bag and slung it over a shoulder, ready to just start walking down the hall towards Iron's Office but a sound forced her to halt. A weird screeching she hadn't heard before was coming from one of the rooms here, along with the sound of razor-sharp claws scraping across wood and stone. 

She decided not to investigate whatever the fuck that was.

Aria steeled herself and resumed her walk down the hall towards the door with the heart symbol on the doorknob, with the plaque on the door reading 'Police Chief Iron's Office'. She reached a hand into her back pocket, pulling out the replica heart key she had made six days ago and it slotted into the lock perfectly, the door unlocked with a soft click as Aria twisted the key. Pulling it out and pocketing it once more before she placed a hand against the door and pushed it open, stepping inside and letting the door close silently behind her. Amber eyes scanned the room easily, taking in all the details that looked just the same as the last time she was here. 

The same green wallpaper, the same desk with the comfortable leather chairman swivel chair. There were still all the same mounted heads, the stuffed raccoon stood on his desk, the random paintings strung up around the room, the taxidermied wolf and deer. All of it, she had seen before. Aria walked further into the room, lips tugging up into a small smirk as she noticed the section of the wall that opened to reveal a passageway, now that was new but she had expected it when she was last here. She assumed that was what lead to the elevator that came straight up to his office too, but she wasn't going out that way to investigate. Not yet at least, there was still plenty to see in this room. Some papers lying on the desk caught her attention first and she walked over to read them, smirking as she realised that were printouts of his emails. 

And he left them in plain view? What a joke. 

She sifted through the papers, eyes scanning the writing. 

_Police Chief Irons,_

_As thanks for your unwavering support, I have deposited a small sum into your account, to use as your see fit. I hope I can count on you to maintain surveillance over your subordinates, especially the ones who survived that mansion. Get rid of them if you must._

_W.B_

_Police Chief Irons,_

_I ran into some trouble with Umbrella headquarters. The suits want to take the fruit of my research away. But don't worry, this will all blow over soon. You just keep doing what I tell you to and everything will be alright._

_W.B_

_Police Chief Irons,_

_You are to up the security around my lab. Your muscleheads are to shoot any suspicious person on sight. Doesn't matter if they kill them, or even if they're-_

A floorboard creaked behind her. 

Aria tilted her head lazily to look over her shoulder, unbothered by the man she saw standing in the hidden doorway or the gun he had aimed at her. Brian Irons was a big man, not muscular but rotund, with grey hair and a matching grey moustache to go with it. The gun pointed at her trembled ever so slightly and his face was twisted with anger. "Turn around!" He barked the order and Aria did so lazily, planting her ass on his desk once she was facing him, arms crossed over her chest, cold eyes settled on him. Staring through the old man, so very aware of the sins he carried on his shoulders. She knew monsters well enough to recognise one when she saw them and this man was one. A vile, hissing monster that cradled life in its claws just for the joy of squeezing it out. "I knew there was something wrong with you the second you stepped foot in my office," He growled, taking a step towards her, clearly believing he had the power in this situation. 

The corner of Aria's lip twitched up as a smirk settled on them. "Congratulations on not going senile yet then, old man," She drawled in response, the click of a gun all she got for her comment. 

"Shut up," He growled, hackles raised like an angry dog, "I don't have time for this, first that little bitch and now you." Aria silent slipped a hand into the pouch on her right hip, in the blink of an eye her arm had flicked up, releasing the throwing knife which sailed through the air and hit Brian's hand. The old man cried out in agony, dropping his gun and quickly snatching his hand up to cradle the now bleeding limb close to his chest. "Why you little-" By the time he had returned his gaze to Aria, she was already right in front of him, twisting her body around on one leg to swing the other up and kick him square in the chest with a surprising amount of strength for someone who looked so unassuming. The kick knocked the air out of him and sent him stumbling back, tripping over his own feet while his size worked against him and sent him crashing to the ground. Hard.

Another screech came from the hallway and Brian groaned, tried to scramble back up to his feet, reaching blindly for his gun. He was stopped when a boot came down, resting heavily on his throat and forcing the man to wheeze as he looked up at the figure now hovering over him. Auburn hair catching the light to look like fire, lips curled up into a cruel smile, a chilling sight to behold on the face of a woman that always seemed so blank. Her eyes too, eyes that should hold the warmth of a glass of old fashioned seemed to burn with a feral light. She looked wild, unhinged, sadistic. For a moment, Brian forgot that she was a human, he felt like he was looking into the face of his very own demons and the Almighty had finally deemed it time to punish him for his sins. 

"Given the rank Chief of Police in February of 1996," Aria crooned carefully from above him, producing another blade. Her butterfly knife that was kept strapped to her left hip, she lazily twirled it between her fingers as she spoke, the movements hypnotic, "but before that, before you even started working on the force you went through University, where you were put under psychiatric examination after two allegations of sexual assault against female students." If possible, his eyes grew even wider as he stared up at her, his Angel of Death. 

"H-How do you-" 

"But due to your excellent academic performance, these charges were never properly investigated. So you graduated, you became Chief of Police and resumed your barbaric ways. Your first victim was your secretary, Victoria Green, was it?" Aria asked, leaning down closer to press the blade of her knife against the cheek of the trembling man who felt like his vision was starting to go dark as she pressed further down onto his throat, "Then, in August and September a total of eight women went missing, all unmarried, blonde women between the ages of eighteen and twenty-three. No bodies were ever found, one was even the mayor's daughter. Such a tragedy isn't it? Young women with such bright futures ahead of them... Squashed like bugs because of one sick man's twisted desires." Aria clucked her tongue and took her boot off of his throat. 

Brian gasped for air but it was short-lived as Aria's knee quickly replaced her boot as she knelt to be closer to him, tracing the blade close to an eye that stared up at her frantically, large, meaty hands coming up to try and tug at her legs but the lack of oxygen was making him weaker. 

And Aria had been trained on how to take down men much bigger and heavier for most of her childhood. 

So she didn't budge. "You see, the thing is Brian, you didn't look into what women you were snatching off of the streets. Nineteen-year-old Evangelina Daviss came from a very wealthy family, did you know that? The girl was raised with a golden spoon in her mouth, though the family didn't exactly get the money from completely legal means. So when she went missing, Randy Daviss hired _me_ to find her and when I uncovered that she was dead... Well, you're a police officer, Mr Irons, I'm sure you've had to tell a man that his daughter has been murdered before, haven't you?" Aria cooed so very sweetly, leaning down closer, trailing her knife across his jaw. "And then, Randy Daviss hired me to find who killed his darling daughter and bring an end to their miserable little life. Oh, the field date I had when I uncovered that you hadn't just killed one innocent woman either, but seven others alongside Miss Evangelina? Well..." Aria trailed off, watching as he squirmed under her, wiggling like a fat little slug. Eyes rolling back into his head, mouth opening and closing like a fish. 

Her smile widened and Aria stood up, watching as Brian coughed and wheezed, hands grasping his throat as he tried desperately to fill his lungs with the air he had been deprived of. Aria hummed dismissively and stepped over him, kicking his gun further away and leaning down to collect the knife she had used to disarm him. Ignoring the way that gun skid across the floor until it hit the leg of a small table, forcing the whole thing to shake and the vase atop it started wobbling precariously. "I had hoped that the zombies would get you," Aria admitted, shrugging her shoulders with a sigh, "but no time to mourn that, I have a job to do and I am going to enjoy staining this floor with your blood, Mr Irons," She purred viciously, stepping towards him once again, twirling the blade around her fingers. 

The vase tipped off of the table and hit the ground, shattering on impact. The sound was loud enough that Aria froze, a chill darting down her spine when she heard that same shriek from before, this time much louder. She whipped around, staring at the door and the sound of scraping claws and hissing as it grew closer. Whatever had been locked away in a different room when Aria originally walked down the art hallway was no longer in that room anymore. She could hear it, right outside the door. Behind her, she heard Brian frantically scrambling away, her head whipped around to face him just as he got to his feet, one hand clutching his bruising throat. 

He sent her a cruel smile before he slammed the hidden door shut, locking her in his office. The loud thud prompting enough animalistic screech to come from the hallway. Before she could find somewhere to hide, the office door flew open. 

◉-◉-◉-◉

Shit. Fuck. He shouldn't have left her with Marvin, he should have fucking insisted that she came with him he just- Fuck, he knew she wasn't going to be there when he got back! 

Leon had managed to get to Claire not long after a helicopter crashed into the building but when it had exploded, the sound caused the zombies in the area to wake up and attracted others, she hadn't been able to find a key to unlock the gate before then. He had to leave her out there and when he had tried to radio Marvin and got no response, not even from Aria who should be with him. He knew. He fucking knew something wasn't right and it added a whole new layer of frantic desperation to his movements. He didn't linger out there very long, just long enough to grab the pair of bolt cutters that had been left discarded on a metal barrel. Then he was rushing to get back to the main hall, shooting every damn zombie that got in his way as a new sense of urgency washed over him. 

When he first burst into the main hall, calling out for Marvin and Aria and receiving no answer, he expected the worse. What he found was only slightly reassuring: Marvin laid down on the seat he'd been sat on, wet cloth on his head, seemingly in a state of fitful rest but still _alive._ No sign of Aria though. Fuck, where had she gone? She said she was going to stay here with Marvin! So many different terrible scenarios rushed through his head, urging Leon to get a move on, slipping back through the hall. The only good thing to come out of this shit show was the fact he'd found one of the medallions. Now he just had to find his missing partner and hope that in the time he'd been gone she hadn't become zombie chow. 

He was back down the hallway to the west, passing the West Office and backtracking in hopes he saw her hunched over there, slipping into the Safety Deposit Room to get the shotgun now that he had the card for it before he was back to moving, reaching the bottom of the staircase where the darkroom was, feeling the worry rising and rising. There was a creak on the stairs, Leon aimed Matilda higher, backing away from the darkroom to take out whatever corpse was easing its way down the steps. He froze and nearly dropped his gun when he saw who it was. A familiar stature with a mess of auburn hair flowing down her back, fringe falling across her face. "Aria?" He asked shakily, taking in the way she was swaying. Had she been bit? Was she a- 

Her head snapped up, very alive whiskey-colored eyes settled on him, face twisted with pain. "Oh, you're still alive, rookie. I heard an explosion and assumed the worse..." Aria drawled lazily upon seeing him, leaning against the wall and pressing her hand into her bleeding side. Upon seeing his expression, she sniffed. "I'm not bit if that's what you're worried about. If I was bit, I would have blown my own brains out by now instead of hobbling down the stairs like an old lady," She commented breezily, dropping her gaze back to the stairs. She hadn't intended to make that comment, well not out loud anyway she had thought it, but she was feeling incredibly bitter after Brian got away. Leaving her to the mercy of the weird skinned four-legged spider fucker that busted through his door.

He probably hoped it would kill her. Well jokes on that fat bastard, she was still alive and now he has Licker guts all over his office floor.

Aria shook off the thoughts, tilting her head up as she watched Leon practically scrambling up the stairs to get to her. The sight would be funny if she wasn't going slightly loopy from blood loss and in extreme agony right about now. It still was a little funny but Aria didn't have the energy to laugh or smile. In fact, a nap was sounding increasingly more and more pleasant right about now... "Fuck, Aria what the hell happened?" Leon hissed once he was close enough, flashlight illuminating her side and showing all the blood creeping out from under her jacket and staining her shirt. Her leather jacket had been torn through, three slashes that wrapped around her side. 

"I got fucked up by a Licker," Aria responded bluntly, grunting in discomfort when Leon forced her to throw an arm over his shoulder so he could help her down the rest of the stairs. If she had the energy, she'd hit him for touching her... But she didn't so she just let him tug her along, figuring the help was better than her falling down the stairs and bleeding out at the bottom. 

"What the fuck is a Licker?" Leon asked, glancing at her. She guessed he was just trying to keep her talking so she didn't pass out. Smart move. 

"Weird zombies that climb on the ceiling and walls and look like they've been skinned. Found a note about them on the third floor," Aria hummed, sighing as they stepped off the last step and Leon began to guide her towards the darkroom. Somewhere safe where he could patch her up in peace. 

"You didn't tell me about the note," He pointed out as he pushed open the door, trying to keep the conversation going while watching Aria as she hobbled inside. Though it was also a genuine point, she hadn't mentioned any note to him when they had checked the third floor before.

Leon hurried over to the table in the middle of the room, clearing it of anything that sat on it before rushing over. "You weren't with me when I found it, Leon," Aria responded bluntly enough, staring at him as he sighed in exasperation at her comment before gesturing for her to sit on the table. Aria did so, hissing when the movement jostled her wounds and sent white-hot jolts of pain through her body. She managed to get sat down, breathing heavily through her nose and trying to lose the expression of pain that was taking over her face. Something Leon noticed and hated to see, watching as she pushed the blank mask back up and it would slip right back down whenever her wounds were moved too much. 

"You're gonna be fine," He promised in an oddly soft tone, Aria turned to glare at him. Expression suggesting he was stupid for even saying such a thing. 

"Of course I'm going to be fine, there just some fucking scratches. I've had worse before," Aria seethed, seemingly more to herself than Leon. That comment concerned him but he bit his tongue to stop himself from asking. "Just... fucking... in my bag, there's a medical kit, get it out," She ordered, voice shaking from the agony she was in right now. Like every damn nerve in her body was on fire. Leon did as he was told, moving over to the bag that she had dropped near the door and crouched down, unzipping it to start rummaging through. While he did that, Aria worked on slowly slipping out of her leather jacket, hissing in pain as she moved her shoulders cautiously until the jacket fell down her arms. Revealing the green tank top she had been wearing under it. The right side heavily saturated with blood and sticking to her skin. 

Leon set the medkit down on the table next to her. "Alright, I'm going to have to left your tank top up, this is going to be painful," Leon warned as he stepped around her.

If Aria wasn't biting her tongue she might have snapped at him to get a move on. Not in the mood to deal with him while he mumbled apologies and get all red in the face over a shirtless woman. She was in pain though and didn't have the energy to snap anymore. Instead, Aria gritted her teeth hard until it felt like her jaw might break just to stop herself from making a sound as Leon slowly lifted her tank top, the fabric peeling away from her wounds. Aria had gotten lucky, they were bleeding pretty bad but they didn't seem to be that deep. 

"I'm going to clean and disinfect the wound," He warned gently, reaching for the medical kit. Aria kept her mouth shut, gripping the edge of the table hard as Leon began to clean the wounds. It fucking hurt but she kept her mouth shut. Unwilling to make another sound, to show another sign of weakness. She sat there silently as he cleaned the wounds, then sprayed them with a medicinal spray which created a protective layer over the slashes to promote healing. It was then that Leon stopped focusing on the wounds long enough to finally notice the large, vivid scars that decorated her back. Violent zig-zags, pale. They stood out on her tanned skin, clear signs of bad past wounds that had healed crappily to leave such vivid scars. 

_"I've had worse before."_

He felt his brows furrow together, lips pursing into a thin line as he realised the weight behind those words. Someone had hurt her before, repeatedly if he had to guess. No wonder she kept a mask on at all times. There was an anger that fizzled up in him at the thought that someone had pushed her to this point, someone had made her this way, that wasn't right! He kept it carefully concealed as he wrapped her up with a bandage to finish the job and then walked around her. His eyes caught sight of something on her right shoulder that made him pause though. Something far more sickening than the scars that marred her back.

A brand. 

It was a symbol he didn't recognise, a diamond with a large 'X' across it. Leon felt like his mouth had gone dry as he looked at her, auburn hair a mess, shoulders rising and falling with unsteady breaths. Just what had she gone through in the past? She tilted her head and her eyes met him. Dull. Blank. No emotion. Leon's eyes stared back at her, shimmering with anger and concern. Aria expected him to ask about the scars, the brand, she was ready to snarl at him for even daring to look at them for longer than a few seconds. He didn't though. He just swallowed. "I can go find you a new shirt if you want?" He offered softly. Hesitantly even, treating her with all the care one would a frightened animal.

Aria glanced down at the tanktop laying uselessly in her lap. Three claw marks shredding through it, covered with blood. It was pretty mangled now, no point in trying to put it back on.

"Yeah, thanks. I'd appreciate that," She mumbled in response and Leon nodded. 

"Okay, I'll be right back then, wait here," He ordered, walking towards the door. Pausing for just a moment to glance back at her, for a moment she just looked so frail. Her eyes were still blank and sharp as the knives she wielded. When she looked up at him, they still cut through him in a way that let Leon know she could read him like an open book but if possible they seemed even more dead than before. Tired. They looked tired. 

Leon promised himself he'd protect her. 

He broke her gaze and slipped silently out of the room, leaving Aria sat on the table. With him gone, the silence of the room was deafening. Aria lifted a hand to press it to her face, she tried hard to forget the way he looked at her and the way it had prompted small cracks to begin creeping up the walls she kept around herself. She didn't need this. She didn't need him. She was just stuck with him until they got out of here. Aria kept reminding herself that while sloppily patching up the cracks he'd begun to make in her walls. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Bit of a heavier chapter this time around right? I'm slightly terrible at writing combat but I hope the Office scene wasn't written too bad. Tell me what you guys think about Aria and her past then? What do you think the brand means? Better yet, how does it feel to finally learn why she's at the police station?


	4. The Maiden

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> "No, no just... forget it," Aria waved her hand, dismissing the question before he even began apologising. She just couldn't handle the fact that he was this genuine. Leon was just really fucking nice, with big puppy-dog eyes and God Aria wanted to punch him. She could handle fat-cats that thought themselves better than everyone, criminals who got their rocks off hurting people but a rookie cop who was nice? No, that was too much for Aria.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for any mistakes, I have... no beta reader. I must edit myself. It is tedious. But please, enjoy!

** <◉>Week<◉>Before<◉>Outbreak<◉> **

_ An old museum certainly was an interesting choice for buildings that could be converted into a police station, not what you'd expect normally. She'd read the reasoning behind the move, of course, 'strategic positioning' this and 'larger parking lot' that but Aria doubted those were the only reasons. She knew the Police Chief had a certain... appreciation for fine artwork but she doubted that was the entire reason. She could admire that the building was pretty though, the main hall awash with a golden glow that made the place seem warm and inviting, beckoning poor souls in to seek shelter and find help from the Officers there. Maybe that was the reason this location was chosen, it called out to people.  _

_ Aria doubted it.  _

_ She had already sat outside smoking a cigarette earlier before she came in but already her body itched with the desire for another one, a feeling brought on just from being in this place. Surrounded by officers. God, she hated cops... She did well to keep the sneer off of her face as she walked further into the building, eyes settled on her phone. Only glancing up when she reached the front desk where an officer was dozing on the job, ignoring them as she grabbed the visitor card hanging around her neck and swiped it. The little machine beeped at her happily, the light turning green as a sign that her entrance was authorized, and the sound had the dozing officer stirring and he lifted his head. He blinked at Aria before sniffing and settling into his seat once more. "Stay outta trouble," He slurred, promptly dozing off again. _

_ Aria shot him a lazy wave as she walked past but otherwise didn't respond, attention momentarily grabbed by the group of officers that walked in the front door together. Chatting and laughing, sharing inside jokes as they nudged and shoved at each other. She paused, the intention to go to the library forgotten as she watched them for a moment, lips settled in a thin line and mask faltering ever so slightly. Just enough for her eyes, usually cold and distant, to soften.  _

_ The look vanished as soon as it came and Aria looked away from the group, auburn hair swishing as her head swivelled instead to the left, craning up to catch sight of the mezzanine balcony above where a man stood. A large man with grey hair and a grey moustache, dressed in a dress shirt and a grey vest that was fitted to his rotund body. His eyes were settled on Aria and he seemed to blink when she suddenly turned to look up at him. She didn't break his gaze, staring at the gargoyle that watched her with blank eyes.  _

_ Aria recognised a monster when she saw one and here one stood. Much like her Father he paraded as human, wore a mask for others, played the part so well, but there was no heart in that chest. That cold husk lacked a soul, he might as well have been a wolf in sheep's clothing. Aria didn't see a human when she watched him, she saw a fiery monster who gripped the railing with talons and breathed smog from its lungs. That was no man but a beast. She stared at him a moment longer, then turned her attention away to resume walking.  _

_ Nearly crashing straight into another Officer that had been just about to try and grab her attention. "Whoah there!" The older man called, hands coming up to grab Aria's shoulders to steady her. A simple touch that sent a jolt through the body of the young redhead and she stepped back immediately, shrugging off his grasp.  _

_ "Sorry," Aria apologised breezily, drawing whiskey-colored eyes up scan his face, "I wasn't paying attention." The man smiled a genuine smile and watched her with warm brown eyes. In fact, everything about this man seemed warm. If there was one thing Aria excelled at, it was reading people. Humans were open books to her, they might lie but she saw the creases, the tells and the ticks. She could pick out a lier in a crowd of people, it made watching movies so difficult because everything seemed so fake. That and it had been drilled into her from a young age that there were more important things in life than products of fantasy and fiction.  _

_ But the man standing in front of her? He read as nothing but genuine. Warm brown skin and eyes to match, a genuine smile that had Aria faltering. The intention to just brush past him and carry on being momentarily forgotten. "No need to apologise, it's my fault really. I should've made myself known," He was telling the truth, being  _ genuine _ , "you're the new intern, right? Everyone's been talking about you. I'm Marvin Branagh." He held his hand out in greeting.  _

_ Aria stared at it for a moment, lips pursed into a frown. "I'm sorry, I don't like to be touched," She said before she could stop herself. Usually, she would just brush it off, put on a new mask and flash her prettiest smile as she slipped her hand to whoever it was that wanted a handshake. For some reason, she didn't want to pretend with Marvin. A thought that completely puzzled her. _

_ He took his hand back with a nod. "That's completely understandable now. You looking to get anywhere in particular?" He asked.  _

_ Aria should brush him off, that was the logical solution, brush past him as she did with everyone else. Treat him as just another face in the crowd but she couldn't. So, despite having the map of this building memorised, Aria gave a small nod of her head and felt her body do something it never did. Relax. "Can you show me to the library, please?"  _

_ Marvin beamed and Aria felt strange. "Of course, right this way." He gestured for her to follow him and she did so, trailing after the peculiar man with the rare starts of a smile tugging at her lips and a foreign feeling swirling around her chest.  _

** <◉><◉><◉><◉> **

Leon was keeping his back to Aria, being respectful of her near-nudity despite having seen it all earlier when he was patching her up. She found it beyond pointless to now act like a nervous schoolboy and hide it with the excuse of developing a roll of film but whatever, she wasn't going to call him out on it and risk starting a conversation she wasn't in the mood for. She didn't want him to think that she actually cared. Because she didn't care. She didn't care about Leon, there was no growing attachment. Nothing. She was just stuck with him for the time being, she would be leaving as soon as she could and they would go their separate ways. She didn't do attachments, she wasn't looking to have her soul torn out and spat on again. 

No. Marvin was already dying, she didn't need another cop to wriggle their way past the walls she had so carefully crafted over the years. She didn't need anyone. She was doing just fine on her own and had been for years. 

Aria finished buttoning up the shirt Leon had found for her - a light blue button-down, a little big but good enough - and tucked the bottom into her jeans so it would fit a little better before rolling up the sleeves to above her elbows. Dressed and feeling much more comfortable, Aria slipped down from the table and closed her medkit to throw it back in her bag. "So, you find that girl? Whatever she was called?" Why did she ask that? Why? Aria didn't care, she didn't give a flying fuck. This all needed to stop- 

"Claire and uh, yeah, she was still waiting in the courtyard when I got there," Leon answered from the other half of the room, stepping back in to watch her, "a helicopter crashed into the building-" which would explain the crash she had heard, "and then exploded-" which would explain the explosion she had heard, "which drew the attention of a lot of zombies so she had to go." Smart lass, no point in trying to stay in the area and risk getting torn apart. "I also managed to find a medallion." Leon dipped a hand into one of his pouches and tugged out something that looked like a really large coin. Tossing it to Aria without a thought. "I need to find the third one but I know where the second one is too, just need to go and get it." 

Aria hummed lazily, rubbing her thumb across the medallion and staring at the image of a unicorn on it. "Then you can open the secret passage?" She drawled, glancing up at him. Leon nodded his head in response and Aria hummed softly, contemplating the medallion for a moment longer. All the time she had spent in this museum looking around and never once had she noticed any sign of a hidden passage. She was getting rusty. 

Father would be disappointed. 

**_ "I expect better." _ **

She could almost feel him there again, the demon that hovered over her shoulder. Spewing flames and sinking claws in, snarling in her ear and rending flesh when she disappointed him. Aria tossed the medallion back to Leon and threw her bag over her shoulder. "Let's go find the other medallion and put them in the statue then," She said, lazily clicking her tongue. Leon stared at her for a moment, his shock clear on his face and Aria raised an eyebrow at him. "Or we could just stand around in here all day doing fuck all, what do you want to do, Kennedy?" 

"No, uh, medallions... is fine," He rushed quickly, pocketing the unicorn medallion once more and ducking back through the room to check that the film had finished developing. He came back out a moment later, Matilda already in hand at the ready and took the lead out of the darkroom to begin the walk back through the darkened hallways and to the Main Hall. Everything was the same, dark and stinking of rot. The ground was still caked with viscera and grey matter. 

There were no zombies down here, they had cleared the whole area out, so Aria let herself think. Wondering just what was going on lately. She had been fine by herself for years, she had work acquaintances but friends? No. She didn't need people to get close. When they got close they only ever stole a part of you and then left. She didn't need that in her life, she was fucked up enough as it was. Maybe it was because she was trying not to drink and smoke as heavily as she had been doing... That had to be it, she was feeling more vulnerable without her usual vices. She wasn't growing soft. 

** "Personal connections are a weakness. Weaknesses will get you killed."  **

He'd been dead four years and she still heard his voice. Her personal fucking ghost that never seemed content with how violently he haunted her. She needed a cigarette. "So," Leon began, shattering the sweet silence that had fallen between them. Sweet for Aria, awkward for him. "You got any family?" He asked, glancing towards the auburn-haired woman who was walking beside him. 

"What?" Aria muttered, head whipping around suddenly to look at him. She stared at Leon for a moment, trying to decide if he was genuinely interested in what he was asking, she was honestly a little stunned at what she saw. He was just so fucking genuine, his emotions like an open book. More so than most people were to Aria. "Fucking Christ," Aria huffed. 

"What? What did I-" 

"No, no just... forget it," Aria waved her hand, dismissing the question before he even began apologising. She just couldn't handle the fact that he was this genuine. Leon was just really fucking nice, with big puppy-dog eyes and God Aria wanted to  _ punch _ him. She could handle fat-cats that thought themselves better than everyone, criminals who got their rocks off hurting people but a rookie cop who was  _ nice? _ No, that was too much for Aria Barette. "I have five older siblings," She answered, turning her gaze away from him to stare at the ground. She felt vulnerable just from sharing that small bit of information. "What about.. you? Any other Kennedy's running around?" Aria asked, awkwardly. 

Leon would find it funny if he wasn't so stunned, this was the most open she had since he had met her and she was acting like an awkward teenage girl on her first date. Not the badass woman that stomped on zombie's brains until they caved in. "I'm an only child," Leon answered, "just me, mom and dad." Aria nodded her head slowly, mostly just to show she was listening to him. Not like she had anything else to add onto that, she was still kicking herself for even engaging with him. What was getting into her lately...? 

The Main Hall greeted them with its warm, orange glow and it was beyond relieving to be here. Leon wasted no time in quickly heading up the stairs to go and get the medallion from the lion statue while Aria moved to check on Marvin. He was still laid down, breathing unevenly, with the cloth resting on his head. He looked worse than before, cheeks more sunken in and skin paler. Setting her bag down, Aria took a seat near him and lifted her hand to feel the damp cloth, much warmer now than it had been earlier. Easy fix, she took it off of his head and rang it out, grabbing a water bottle once more to pour some water onto it and place the newly cold cloth on Marvin's forehead. His eyes were shut, face wrinkled with discomfort, but it eased slightly at the addition of the cool cloth. 

Aria sighed softly, listening to the gentle click of Leon's shoes against the floor tiles as he made his way back down the stairs and over to them, pausing a few feet behind to just watch for awhile. Usually, Aria wouldn't be caught dead showing any sign of... softness. It was something she would be punished for growing up, she wasn't meant to be gentle. 

**_ "You six will be my Executioners. The world is cruel. We must be crueller." _ **

His voice rasped in her ear, so close. She shoved it away, muffling him and pushing him far into the back of her mind where he could lurk in the shadows. "You and Marvin," Leon began, quickly grabbing Aria's attention, "Were you close?" He asked, trying to be sensitive. 

Aria hated how genuine he was, how he always seemed to care so much. Why? Why did he give a shit about her? Why couldn't he just be an ass like every other person she met. Aside from Marvin... Why did Leon fucking Kennedy have to be like Marvin? Why did they both have to be so fucking genuine? If she believed in a higher power, she might believe these two men had been thrown into her life to test her. Yet still, even with those thoughts, she wanted to answer. "He was the first officer I met during my first day here, showed me around." And then wouldn't leave her alone. It seemed like Marvin had taken it upon himself to take her under his wing and get her to open up. He was a kind man. A good man. 

He didn't deserve this, to lay here clutching his side, having his body invaded by some virus that was going to strip him of everything that made him  _ him.  _ It wasn't fair. None of this... Aria felt like her head was becoming a mess, too loud, too crowdy. Too much. She should have been here earlier, regret and guilt were not emotions she felt and yet here they were settling their vice-like grip around her heart and squeezing. She should have been here. She could have saved Marvin if she had just been here. 

Why did she destroy everything she touched. Did Father really have his claws sunk in that deep than even after all these years she was still nothing more than a destructive force for him to control? "We sh-should, uh, we should go find that last medallion," Aria blurted out suddenly, tearing her eyes away from Marvin and forcing herself to rise to her feet. Her mask was crumbling, cracking under her hands while she tried desperately to press it further into her face. To keep up the facade, the ruse that she was the emotionless machine her father had forced her to become. "Come on let's go." 

She couldn't be here any longer, staring at the shell that Marvin was turning into against his will. Her head kept chanting all the useless facts she knew about him in fear that if she didn't he would be completely forgotten. 

Forty-three, favourite color was yellow, liked pecan pie. Forty-three. Yellow. Pecan pie. 

Aria kept her head down as she walked down the halls, hearing the footsteps of Leon behind her. The tension between them thick, the urge to try and speak to her right on the tip of Leon's tongue but he didn't know what to say. He was just as lost as her. "We're going to get him help." He ended up saying, firm and resolute. Aria didn't have the heart to tell Leon that Marvin was practically already dead. So she just stayed quiet, taking the lead back towards the stairs that led up to the second floor. 

◉-◉-◉-◉

The West Storage room was, putting it lightly, a complete mess. A generous littering of rotting and decaying corpses lay sprawled across the ground, blood in varying states of drying made trails across the wooden floor. The whole place just stunk, even worse than the men's Shower Room had been. Aria did well not to throw up just at the smell alone, it pushed even her limits and well... She had originally thought that nothing could challenge those with all the shit she had seen in her life. Upon stepping into the room, Aria had scrunched up her nose and narrowed her eyes while Leon wretched, lifting an arm to block the smell. "What the-?!" He wheezed, looking around the room slowly. Taking in the field of corpses and weird fungus-looking growths that clung to certain parts of the wall near the ground. 

"Well this place smells fucking vile," Aria drawled, back to sounding emotionless. Out here she could focus, she could believe that the dam she put up when she was a child to hold her emotions back wasn't turning to dust. Out here she was withdrawn. Meticulous. Mechanic. She was just what her dear late-Father had always wanted her to be. 

"Don't touch any of the things on the wall," Leon ordered after swallowing the bile that had crawled up his throat and creeping into the room, Aria hung back, gaze now locked on a corpse that was hanging from the ceiling. 

"You got it, Kennedy." She grabbed her knife and walked towards the thing, twirling it around her fingers and analysing the corpse slowly. Not trusting this one. At all. While Aria eyed up the body hanging from the roof, Leon grabbed the extra pouch that was lying discarded on a table before the note next to it caught his attention. Lips tugged down into a frown as he stepped closer to read it. 

"Holy fuck..." 

"What?" Aria asked, whiskey-colored eyes snapping away from the hanging corpse to glance over at her partner. Leon held the document out for her and she stepped closer to take it from him, flipping through the pages as she read. Expression remained impressively blank but Leon saw her eyes darken, sickened by what she was reading on the file. 

_ Damn those corporate assholes! They cut me off! After all I've done for them! But if that's how it's gonna be, so be it. I'm gonna have a little fun of my own as the world goes to shit. _

_ I boarded all those filthy pigs up in a steel pen, and set some C4. All i gotta do is detonate it and it's "sayonara suckers!" _

_ But it's no fun if it's over too soon, so maybe I'll give that one a raving loon something to really squeal about. _

_ Yeah, maybe I'll give him a little toy and tell him, "Kill the guy next to you and I'll spare the others." I wonder what he'll do. _

_ You yell about "justice" and "pride" but how many times did you go against me, your own superior? _

_ Yeah, you're such a good cop... So good you had to die. _

_ Man is this fun. I need some music for this. _

"Who do you think wrote it?" Leon asked, watching as Aria reread the note a few more times. Unaware of how her eyes focused on the words  _ 'your own superior'.  _

"Someone with a lot of fucking issues, which is rich coming from me," She finally responded, passing the document back to Leon and watching him slip it into his pocket. Keeping her expression impassive despite the growing and bubbling rage in her heart. Oh, she had a good fucking idea oh who had written that, who killed these people. Aria might not like cops but even she knew that they hadn't deserved this... Amber eyes moved from Leon to stare at the metal bars separating them from the pile of bodies that lay sprawled across the ground. In there, locked in a steel cage and surrounded by corpses, was the final statue. "That the one you been looking for?" Aria asked when she felt Leon walk up next to her, pointing his flashlight through the bars. 

She tried not to think about the potential symbolism of finding The Maiden locked in a cage surrounded by death, nor the way she felt similar to The Maiden at this moment. Aria was locked in her own cage that was filled with nothing but death and tragedy, the faces of people long dead that would reach out to her in the late hours of the night when she was left alone to her thoughts. Screaming and rattling their chains, gripping at her arms until they left bruises and cuts, pushing her to the brink until the sun rose and they would dart back into the crevices of her mind and lay in wait for their next chance to strike. Yeah, Aria was being haunted by the dead long before corpses started walking. 

"We're gonna need a detonator to get in there," Leon sighed and Aria hummed her agreement. 

"We'll have to go search for it then, come back when we find it." Aria turned away from the grizzly sight to take another look around the room and search for supplies. Finding more ammo and gunpowder, some planks to board up a window, all of which was passed to Leon. "I think we're done here until we can find the detonator," She said and Leon nodded his head, leading the way back out of the room and into the hall. 

"So you never told me why you left Marvin," Leon said suddenly once they were back in the hallway, Aria looked up and raised an eyebrow at him. 

"You never asked," She pointed out simply, turning her gaze back to her knife which she had been lazily twirling around her fingers before slipping it back into its holster on her hip, "besides it doesn't matter." 

Leon stopped walking, eyebrows scrunching together as his lips curled down into a frown. "You could have died, Aria, that matters," Leon responded, feeling a flash of anger that she was so quick to discard the fact that she had been injured and close to dying.

"Wouldn't be the first time, Kennedy," Aria drawled in response, shaking her head and continuing to walk. 

"That doesn't make it any-" 

"We should split up to find the detonator," Aria cut him off, "and the valve for the Shower Room. I'll go in search of the detonator, then we can get the last medallion and get the fuck out of here." She was already taking her leave, leaving Leon stood there in shock. "I have a radio, buzz me when you find it. We'll meet back up at the darkroom." 

"Aria, wait!" Aria was already gone, leaving Leon stood in the middle of the hallway without batting an eye. He was beyond concerned at the fact she was running off again when the last time she vanished she came back injured. "Just... don't get yourself injured again," Leon murmured to himself, letting the words hang in the air before he began his own search for the detonator. There was a lot he didn't know about Aria, a lot of suspicions he had and yet there was some part of him that still cared about her. All things considered. 

She'd shared a lot about herself whether or not she realised and it only deepened Leon's suspicion that there was more to Aria. She was an enigma and he wanted to get to know her. He wanted her to trust him. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Aria's emotions are starting to rear their head more and more, huh? My girls feeling emotions and denying it, how typical of her. 
> 
> Anywho, Ya'll should absolutely come to check out my Tumblr wolfie-doggo (link in my page description), I would like to directly talk to some of you guys so I have anon asks open for any discussions! I'm going to scurry away now, back into the darkness.


	5. The Lieutenant

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> "When I was still at the academy, they talked to us about a domestic abuse case. The kid had scars very similar to yours from where his mother used to belt him, I'm not clueless Aria. You've clearly been through hell... And maybe you don't trust me, I get that, but I just want to-" 
> 
> "Shut. Up." Aria growled, her eyes cold in a way that Leon had never seen and it did actually manage to make his mouth shut quickly and with a harsh clack of teeth. "We are not friends. We will never be friends. We are stuck together because of unfortunate circumstances, as soon as we get out of this station I will be leaving you. Forget what you saw when you patched my injury and lose any attachments you are developing for me."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Boy this took ages to write but I finally finished it. Life has been entirely chaotic the past month and motivation has been lacking. I hope this chapter makes up for it. Apologies for any grammar or spelling mistakes, I edited it while half-asleep so I might have missed more than usual. 
> 
> Warnings for s p i c e.

The craving for a cigarette had become too much so with the detonator in hand, Aria had finally decided to deal with the itch in her fingertips. The burn too much to keep smothered under a blanket, so she lit up a cigarette and made herself at home leaning against a wall in the dank and disgusting hallway. Taking heavy drags slowly, letting it rest in her lungs until there was a familiar burning before she exhaled. Aria let out a plume of smoke that hung in the air, giving her the appearance of an ancient dragon sat regarding its prey with a bored expression. In this case, the prey was the detonator she was closely examining. It was definitely the one that they needed but it was missing a battery. She found it highly unlikely that it would work without a battery... Which meant they had more searching to do, annoyingly enough. 

She was sure that the phrase  _ "things were never easy" _ had been made just for her, four words that had been welded into her very being. 

Her radio crackled and dragged her out of her thoughts.  _ "I have the valve, did you find the detonator?" _ Leon's voice came through, slightly distorted by the static but still discernible. 

Aria clucked her tongue absentmindedly and pocketed the detonator, reaching for her radio to lift it to her lips. "Yeah, it's not gonna be much use to us though. Needs a battery before it'll work," She explained, taking another drag of her cigarette and listening to the saddened sigh that Leon gave in response to that bit of information. "I'll start making my way back now, see ya in a bit." Aria didn't wait for a reply, just clipped her radio to her jacket once more and took her leave from the room she had been lazing in. 

The Shower Room was where it had been last time Aria checked and Leon was leaning against the wall by it. He lifted his head to shoot her a small smile that Aria didn't return but that was no surprise. "No issues?" The rookie cop asked. 

Aria shrugged and opened the door. "Eh, some guy missing half a face tried to take a chunk out of my ass but I dealt with him," She responded smoothly, gesturing for Leon to take the lead and put the valve in place. Which he did, shutting off the scalding steam that had been violently bursting from the pipe and blocking their way. The pipes hissed unhappily like an agitated snake moved from the warmest spot, then the steam stopped and the entryway was open to them. This room was unnamed on the map, to Leon it just looked like an extension of the shower room and it was mostly empty. 

Save for a single body that sat slumped over on the bench, head angled at a way that obscured its face. "That bastard is gonna get back up..." Aria grumbled, already reaching for a knife. She took a few steps into the room and the body slumped forward, tumbling off of the bench with all the grace of a drunk fat man. With shocking speed, Aria launched the blade in her hand and sent it into the back of the body's cranium. It didn't budge again; they both relaxed and went about investigating the rest of the room to search for supplies. While Leon dug around in the unopened lockers, Aria recovered her knife. 

"You're pretty good at all this survival stuff," Leon pointed out, glancing over his shoulder at her, "almost like you were prepared for it." 

Aria raised an eyebrow at him. "You suspecting me of starting this whole thing now, Kennedy?" She drawled lazily. 

Watching how quickly he panicked almost made Aria laugh. Almost. "No, no, no I uh, I wasn't insinuating that but- uh it's just- well you're very secretive and you don't talk about yourself so I'm just trying to learn more about you," Leon blurted out, turning to face Aria finally. Oh, he was definitely a rookie. Seeing how he flustered and squirmed under her intense gaze, it would be enough to make her smirk if she wasn't studying him. "You've dodged every question I've asked and your back-" 

Aria bristled and her eyes hardened, entire body tensing as she immediately went on the defensive. Something Leon had never seen. She had shown anger, irritation but mostly she was just blank with the occasional flash of emotion in her eyes that he would barely catch. "What  _ about _ my back?" Aria growled, daring him to answer. 

Leon wasn't about to let her scare him. "It's covered in scars. I'm not clueless Aria, I've seen those kinds of scars before," He admitted and he was speaking with such a gentle tone that it made Aria's stomach twist; not in a good way. "When I was still at the academy, they talked to us about a domestic abuse case. The kid had scars very similar to yours from where his mother used to belt him, I'm not clueless Aria. You've clearly been through hell... And maybe you don't trust me, I get that, but I just want to-" 

"Shut. Up." Aria growled, her eyes cold in a way that Leon had never seen and it did actually manage to make his mouth shut quickly and with a harsh clack of teeth. "We are not friends. We will never be friends. We are stuck together because of unfortunate circumstances, as soon as we get out of this station I  _ will _ be leaving you. Forget what you saw when you patched my injury and lose any attachments you are developing for me." She turned then, leaving with a flick of auburn hair that caught the dim lighting and looked like fire. 

Leon stood there silently, trying to digest everything that had just been thrown at him. Aria left, stepping out of the door and into the new hallway they hadn't explored yet, letting the door shut with a soft click. Leon sighed. "So much for trying to be nice..." Keeping up with her was exasperating but he wasn't stupid, he knew what she was trying to do. Put a wedge, piss him off so he would stop trying. Well, Leon might not know what she was trying to hide but he wanted to prove to her that not everyone deserved to be kept away. Did he know why he was trying so hard to get her to trust him? No. Did that stop him from doing it anyway? Also no. 

He didn't know why he cared, he just did. He wasn't going to let her push him away like she seemed so intent to do. He would show her that he wasn't like the people that caused her to be so reclusive.

Leon did one last search of the room with his eyes, then he followed Aria out of the room she had just ducked out of. "Aria wait-" He was immediately silenced by a hand clamping over his mouth, shutting him up. Aria wasn't even looking at him, her eyes settled on the hallway ahead. Leon followed her gaze and felt every muscle in his body tense up (to the point it was almost painful) when he saw it. The trail of corpses caught his eye first, nothing new there, but what was new is the figure on the ceiling. 

There was barely any light in this hallway, Leon had his flashlight pointed right at the thing and that was all he needed to make out its features. Exposed muscle, stretched taut across some weird deformed corpse that looked like a human had been skinned and twisted in a way that no human should ever be contorted. A long tongue was coiled around another body which it dropped, the corpse hitting the ground with a wet, meaty slap, lying motionless among the others in a macabre take of a vegetable field. "What in God's name..." Leon whispered as Aria's hand slowly lowered from his mouth. The creature tilted its head towards them and let out the most God awful screeching sound. That was when Leon finally noticed that it didn't have any eyes or much of a face in general, just an exposed brain. 

Aria's hand curled around his wrist. "Don't make a fucking sound," She whispered, voice barely audible above the sound of rain beating down against the glass. Aria tugged him back towards the door they had just walked out of, slowly opening it to step back and lead the way, watching as the monster on the ceiling screeched and tilted its head this way and that. 

Leon didn't even realise he had been holding his breath until he was back in the shower room and released a shaky breath, head swivelling to look towards Aria. "What the fuck was that?" He asked, breathless. 

Aria scowled at the door. "That was a Licker. One of the bastards that attacked me earlier," She murmured. 

"That's what attacked you?" He hissed, glancing back towards the door. Everything just kept getting more and more fucked up by the minute. Aria hummed and lazily nodded. 

"Yeah..." She muttered, letting go of Leon's wrist and stepping back to turn and walk back through the shower room, away from the hallway with Lickers and back towards the hallway that led to the stairwell. Leon didn't hang around, trailing after Aria as he continued to try and figure out what he had just fucking witnessed. Now the zombies, they were weird enough to wrap your head around, but those things? Whatever the fuck they were... 

They were a whole other level of fucked. 

The Main Hall greeted them like an old friend, one of the few places in this building that didn't feel threatening and cold. The lights were warm, the space was wide and comforting. Aria hung back by the door to the West Office while Leon walked ahead to go and check on Marvin, leaning back to survey the room and listen for any possible danger. Despite having already satiated her craving for a cigarette, her fingertips were already itching with the urge to reach for another - likely caused by Leon's insistent attempts to dig into her past and become her friend. She didn't understand that damn man! Never before had she met someone so damn insistent on trying to get close to her, hell even Marvin had backed off when Aria made it clear she wasn't discussing her past. 

Aria shook her head, scowled and shifted her gaze over to watch as Leon began to audibly raid through his storage box, making sure everything he had collected was in order. While he did that, Aria noticed that Marvin's body was beginning to shift; that caught her attention more than the rookie cop. She straightened up and began to make her way towards him, lips tugging down. "Marv-" His head swivelled towards her, pale eyes lifeless and devoid of the warm man she had once known. The vilest, unpleasant groaning gargle of a sound bubbled up from his lips as he rose to his feet. 

Leon's head whipped around at the sound and he raced back over to see what was going on; he too froze when he caught sight of the remaining husk of Marvin as it hobbled towards Aria. Arms outstretched, hands grabbing desperately as it groaned and gurgled disgustingly. Teeth gnashing at her. Leon reached for Matilda. 

Three loud bangs stopped him, fingers curled around Matilda's grip, and his eyes shot back over to Aria as Marvin's corpse slumped to the ground. Her bag sat opened on the ground, spilling out its contents. Her expression was cold and detached. The gun in her hands was one Leon had never seen her wield, a desert eagle, clearly well looked after but Aria had never even mentioned that she had a gun. Leon was stunned, staring while Aria lowered her gun and swallowed thickly. 

Marvin's corpse didn't move. Aria didn't risk it. She walked over, refusing to look at it, and she lifted her leg to slam her boot down into its head. The soft flesh and weak bone gave way under her foot. Now it definitely wasn't getting back up. 

"Aria," Leon spoke up softly, "are you alright?" 

"I'm fine." She didn't sound it, even with her expression blank her voice still trembled. Barely there but Leon still heard it though, it took him a moment to register that was what he had heard. He'd only known Aria for the span of a few hours, yet in that time it had been made abundantly clear that this woman was callous. She was removed and calculated. She didn't willingly show emotions and the few times Leon had caught sight of anything more than irritation or anger from Aria it had been unintentional. Nothing more than a slight glaze crossing her eyes, so quick you might think you never saw anything at all. This? This was new. Her voice trembled, he noticed the faintest shake to her hand that still held her gun. 

For once, he wasn't about to just let her push him back and shrug away her emotions. "No your not," He responded, keeping his tone gentle as he stepped to stand between her and Marvin's body, "come on, let's get out of here..." 

Aria's eyebrows furrowed together and her lips curled into a scowl. "Leon I'm-" 

"No, you're not, for once don't argue with me," Leon grunted, finally putting his foot down on her attempts to shove him away, "we're getting out of here." She seemed tempted to argue, opening her mouth before she paused as she caught sight of Marvin's hand, laying palm up, pale and lifeless. Her mouth closed and she swallowed as her eyes dimmed, lips tugging down. 

"Okay..." She whispered instead, voice trembling still. 

She didn't fight him when his hand came to rest on the small of her back as he led her back through the rooms they had already cleared out. The zombie clawing desperately at the window in the stairwell gargled when it saw them and tried to reach through the boarded-up window; it failed in grabbing them as it had in all its past attempts. Neither spared it a glance. Leon just guided Aria to the Darkroom. 

**< ◉>Eighteen<◉>Years<◉>Old<◉>**

_ The office was a truly grand place, dripping with wealth. One wall nothing but windows that showed off the vasty city skyline. The sky was dark and the stars were obstructed by the light pollution of the city below. Though the office's penthouse location did give the illusion of appearing above the stars, with all the twinkling lights of the different businesses and apartments below. Passing cars looked like comets soaring across the dark abyss of space. It would be beautiful if she wasn't surrounded by corruption. The rest of this room served as nothing but as a way for Father to flaunt his wealth. A wide desk that cost over ten thousand dollars, a Chesterfield style desk chair that cost over five thousand dollars. Bookshelves stuffed full of old and rare books that her father never bothered to read. Didn't care for. They simply served to aid in helping him appear educated while flaunting his wealth and connections. _

_ None of the photos hung up in the office were of family and, in Aria's opinion, they all would be much better in a museum.  _

_ There Aria sat, feet up on the desk, lazily twirling her blade around her fingers, uncaring for the dirt that she had gotten on the otherwise spotless desk from the bottom of her boots. Her other hand resting on her hip, over the familiar and comforting shape of her gun. She wasn't even looking at the door to the office when it opened, somebody walking into the office and letting the heavy door shut behind them. There were footsteps though they quickly paused. "What on Earth are you doing here?" A man's voice asked. Deep, gravely and angry.  _

_ Aria lazily dragged her whiskey-coloured eyes back up to the man who stood on the other side of the room. Destrian Barette. Tall, well built, wearing a suit tailored perfectly to his body. He had dark brunette hair, blackened from the copious amount of gel used to keep it slicked back. He had well-kept stubble decorating his jaw and intense whiskey-eyes. A gaze so dark that as a child she had feared it. Now? She regarded him with the same level of indifference she gave everyone else. "Father." Aria greeted coldly.  _

_ "Get your feet off of my desk," Destrian growled, prowling towards the desk with a look of fury etched into his otherwise handsome features. Aria did so and stood up from his seat. "Now what the Hell are you doing-" _

_ Aria lifted her arm, pointing her gun directly at him. The silver barrel of her Desert Eagle caught the light and glimmered. The weight was familiar in her hands. Welcomed even. "I'm here to do my job. The job you trained me for, Father. Just this time I'm working for a different employer. No hard feelings," Aria spoke, voice void. The old man's lips opened, no doubt about to make some attempt at shaming her into giving up. She didn't give him the chance.  _

_ There was no hesitating. No reflecting on the past or thinking back to nights he had spent reading her bedtime stories or comforting her after nightmares. Those memories didn't exist. Destrian had not been a kind father, nor had he even been a good one. She didn't falter. Just aimed and pulled the trigger. _

_ The gunshot violently pierced the quiet of the room. Her father's body dropped like a rock and blood immediately began pooling around his head. No doubt making quick work on staining the expensive carpet he'd paid over twelve thousand dollars to have fitted. Such a shame. Aria regarded him coldly for a moment before slipping her gun back into its holster. "No hard feelings, Father. Just doing my job," She murmured, lighting a cigarette.  _

_ And frowning when she noticed that her hands were trembling.  _

**< ◉><◉><◉><◉>**

The walk to the Dark Room had been a blur, Aria wasn't even aware of how long they had been sat in there when she finally came back from her thoughts. She blinked, eyebrows furrowing together as she caught sight of the table she had sat on while Leon patched her up. Then, as if he was aware she was thinking about him, he was crouched in front of her. Leon's face was scrunched with worry and the sight made Aria's stomach twist. Not because she didn't like seeing him worried, that wasn't it at all, she just hated being pitied. She didn't need him pitying her. She loathed to be pitied, wouldn't stand for it. "You alright?" Leon asked, voice so soft it made Aria flinch and scowl. "You zoned out for a while there, I was starting to get worried." 

Foolish of him to do so, Aria couldn't comprehend why he made such an effort to give a shit about her. Why he felt the need to play the role of caring. "I'm fine now," Aria grumbled. She wasn't and even she knew that. her hands were trembling, the memory of the last time she had held her gun kept flashing across her mind. She was pathetic, even taking down that disgusting man - who had brought her nothing but pain - had shaken her to her very core. Killing Marvin had been worse, even if it was no longer Marvin. He was still practically a stranger to her but he had shown such compassion and care. He had been respectful enough not to pry but tried to show Aria that he was there, he was open. He told her about pointless things he shouldn't have mentioned, things she didn't care about. 

**_ Forty-three. Yellow. Pecan pie. _ **

**_ Forty-three. Yellow. Pecan pie. _ **

**_ Forty-three. Yellow. Pecan pie. _ **

Why did she remember all this pointless crap?! Marvin was dead, she had crushed his head under her boot after planting a bullet in his brain. Yet the thought kept digging deeper and deeper into her head. It risked triggering the delicate minefield that was her psyche, bombs wrapped in nerves and grey matter just waiting to be triggered. Leon's lips were moving but Aria couldn't hear a word he was saying, there was nothing but an obnoxious beeping. She needed a distraction, she needed to stop thinking... She needed... She needed. 

Aria's eyes settled on Leon. 

She knew exactly what she needed. 

"Do you find me attractive, Kennedy?" Aria asked suddenly, sound popped back into existence and Leon's eyes widened as he stared at her. 

"What?" He responded, gawking at the woman who had been zoning out with a blank gaze just seconds earlier. "Do I-" 

"Do you find me attractive?" Aria cut him off and raised an eyebrow, "I'm asking simply out of politeness, I know you do. I've caught you staring at me multiple times when you thought I wasn't looking." Leon floundered, choking on his spit as colour rushed to his cheeks and suddenly it was like he was incapable of looking at her. Eyes darting everywhere else but the auburn-haired woman now watching him with intense eyes. 

He finally managed to swallow, forcing her eyes to look back at her. "Why do you ask?" His voice was strained, uncomfortable, stunned at being tossed into this situation. An understandable reaction, it wasn't often that one found themselves in moments like this but Aria always had been different. She knew of only one way to deal with her emotions when they got this cluttered. 

"I want you to fuck me, that's why," Aria's voice dipped into a purr and Leon tensed up. Eyes widened and he stared at her, stunned into silence as Aria shifted closer to him. Willingly entering his space, something else that never happened and Leon was doing his damn best to keep up. "I need to unwind, this has all been very stressful and I have an itch that I would like you to help me scratch. I find you physically attractive, you find me attractive. We could die at any given moment. It doesn't have to mean anything, so do you want to?" Aria asked once more, tilting her head to the side. 

Leon knew he shouldn't. They were in the middle of a zombie apocalypse, Aria was clearly grappling with the loss of someone she cared about but... She did make a good point. They could die at any given moment, he was also beginning to feel pent up and stressed from hours of running around and killing zombies. Leon's jaw tensed, he stared at Aria and finally came to a decision he would likely regret later. "Alright. Take off your shirt." The sudden change in his voice surprised Aria but it was a welcomed distraction. She did as he asked, jacket was shrugged off and shirt was carefully removed, mindfully of her injured side before her hands moved to began shedding his own articles of clothing. Nimble fingers moving swiftly, ridding him of the uniform that cruelly kept his body hidden from sight. Leon watched her intensely the whole time until finally his shirt was pushed back from shoulders and he lurched forward. 

He was so close, lips right there but paused before claiming her mouth as a thought occurred to him. "Are you okay with kissing?" He asked suddenly. Aria growled, her hands flying up to grab his face and yank him the rest of the way. Lips pressing against his, claiming his mouth with a ravenous hunger that answered Leon's question better than any words could. He grunted as he began to pull them up, pulling Aria up into strong arms to carry her over to the table, planting her ass on it and stepping in between her legs. Body pressed against her, catching the plump flesh of her bottom lip between his teeth and tugging on it. A breathy moan tumbled from Aria's lips at the action and her hands slid across his cheeks to bury in his hair and tug him closer. 

Leon had hooked up a few times at the academy, he had a girlfriend not that long ago, but none of them tackled him with the amount of eagerness that Aria did. She was experienced, her lips moved knowingly and she knew all the right ways to press her lips against his in a way that made his head spin. A far-cry to the other girls he had been with where it had been clumsy and inexperienced, young women trying new things in an attempt to be sexy that didn't work but the effort was there. There were no cheesy attempts at flirting or pick up lines, nothing sly. Just Aria breaking away from the kiss with a gasp, eyes darkened as she looked up at him, keeping herself close to him as she growled. "Hurry up and fuck me, Kennedy." It was raw and primal. 

Leon was happy to oblige. Pants were pulled down, he shoved his boxers down and merely pulled Aria's to the side so she could slip two fingers into her, pressing thumb against her clit to rub it in slow circles. Listening to ever small hitch of breath, marvelling at how wet she was already. slicking coating his fingers easily as he scissored them, prepping her for him. Lowering his face to press it against her neck, shuddering in delight when Aria obediently tilted her head back. "Bite me, Leon." 

She had never said his name before and fuck did it sound good on her lips, dipped in her honeyed voice, especially when following such a beautiful command. How could he say no? He opened his mouth and sank teeth into her neck, biting down hard and listening to Aria moan in delight at the feeling. Hips bucked against his hand. He pulled back, brought his fingers out of her and wrapped a hand around his throbbing cock. Lining it up with her entrance before pushing in. Both of them tensed up, gasped at the feeling. Aria was so wonderfully tight, stretching around his cock to take him and it felt fucking amazing. Leon didn't dawdle, he set straight to fucking her. Hands settling on her ass, gripping it tight and using it as leverage to pull her into every thrust. Reclaiming her mouth to muffle her moans, shuddering in delight when she wrapped her legs around his waist to aid in pulling him deeper into her. 

It was rough, hard, fast. Primal and unhinged, desperate even. Both just trying to work out all the stress that this entire event had caused and using each other. That's all it was, two people using each other for relief and that was something Aria could handle. No feelings, no sappy crap. Just primal needs. 

Leon pulled out of her briefly and Aria opened her mouth to bitch at him, only to find herself getting pulled off of the table, turned around and bent over it. Tits mashed against cold metal and her side throbbed in argument to being moved but Aria had no time to linger on the pain before Leon was shoving himself back in her. "Fuck!" Aria cursed loudly, clawing at the table as Leon kept thrusting. Hard and fast, every connection filling the room with the sound of skin slapping against skin, every thrust prompting a moan to tumble from kiss-swollen lips while Leon grunted behind her. 

"Fucking close," He grunted, leaning over her, pressing chest to back. Covering her body with his, pinning her. One hand reached around and down, rubbing pointer and middle finger against clit. Aria squeaked and arched her back. 

"F-fuck, fuckfuck, yes, please! So close, let me cum Leon!" Aria cried out, uncaring for who or what heard. Enjoying this moment of nothing but sex, no annoying nagging thoughts. Just pleasure. She was being shoved closer and closer to that edge until finally, she toppled over, clenching tight around Leon and pulling a stammered groan from him as he stuttered to a stop and his balls tightened. Spurting cum into her and collapsing against her back. For a moment both stood there, panting and trying to catch their breaths, not a word was exchanged between them. 

They separated and Aria went about dressing herself, walking through the to picture development area to clean up a little using the sink in there. She pulled on her clothes, straightened them out and then stepped back into the rest of the room, gesturing for Leon to use it after her. He did, watching Aria out of the corner of his eye all the while. She certainly seemed back to her usual self. Detached, withdrawn, not acting as if he had just railed her bent over the table. She was painfully normal and staring at the detonator when he stepped back into the room, freshened up and dressed. "We should go find a battery for this," She spoke up, not looking at Leon, "we're gonna need it if we want to get that last medallion and get the fuck out of here." 

Leon swallowed and nodded. "I know a good place to start," He offered, moving to grab his abandoned pouches while Aria gathered her bag and slung it over a shoulder. 

"Lead the way, Kennedy," She drawled in her usual blank voice, back to normal. Back to last names. Leon nodded and took the lead, pushing open the door and stepping out into the stairwell where there was still a zombie trying to get through the boarded-up window. He paid it no mind and neither did Aria, both just walking in silence as Leon began to lead the way to the S.T.A.R's office. He did his best not to think about fucking her on the table and how it meant nothing, just two people helping unload some tension. That was all. 

That was all. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Oh my~


End file.
